April 9, 2008 -- JFE Steel Corp. intends to spend ¥500-600 billion to build a steelworks in Brazil on the heels of a similar move recently announced by archrival Nippon Steel Corp. With the cost of importing resources rising, production in the iron-ore-rich country is expected to cut costs. Major Japanese steelmakers already have mills abroad, but mainly for manufacturing automotive steel plate and other finished products. They currently lack overseas blast furnaces to make the steel on which these products are based. Under the joint venture with South Korea's Dongkuk Steel Mill Co. and major Brazilian resource-mining company Vale, JFE will build in the state of Ceara two blast furnaces capable of turning out a combined 5-6 million tons of steel per year. JFE will own a majority stake. Crude steel produced there will be sold in the South American market and supplied to JFE's construction steel joint venture in North America. It will be shipped to Japan and elsewhere in Asia as well.
Abstracted from Asia Pulse
