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Formosa Steel lifts investment to $22b in cast iron refinery
Taiwan-invested Hung Nghiep Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Co has increase its investment in its cast iron refinery in the central province of Ha Tinh to US$22 billion. When completed, the project will be the first facility of its kind in the nation.
In its status report on the project to the Viet Nam Steel Association, the company said the total cost both stages of the project had initially been estimated at $15 billion but the figure had now been hiked to $22 billion.
The investor has reaffirmed its intent to break ground early next year, with the plant to commence operations one year later, the association's vice chairman, Nguyen Tien Nghi, told Sai Gon Times Online.
The refinery has been designed to supply four million tonnes of products per year, making it the largest facility of its kind in the Southeast Asia, Nghi said.
Other subprojects, construction of the Son Duong deepwater seaport, have already gotten underway, he added.
Earlier in 2010, Ha Tinh Province handed over around 3,300ha of land in Ky Anh District for the investor to develop the complex with an annual output of 7.5 million tonnes. Slow site clearance has reportedly had a significant impact on purchasing contracts for equipment from European suppliers.
Local authorities expected that the complex would create 10,000 local jobs in the first phase, with the figure to grow to 30,000 upon completion of the second phase.
Ha Tinh People's Committee chairman Nguyen Kim Cu said that the project could help shift the provincial economic structure from agriculture to industry and services, fostering the development of other industries not only in the province but also neighboring localities such as Quang Binh and Nghe An.
vietnamnews
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