Australian steel firm opens plant in Suzhou
(Shanghai Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-18 14:24
Austrilia's BlueScope Steel Ltd will open a flat steel metallic coating and
painting facility in Suzhou today to tap increasing Chinese demand.
The
facility cost 280 million Australian dollars (211.1 million U.S. dollars) and is
the company's biggest manufacturing facility in Asia.
The plant is located at the Suzhou Industrial Park in Jiangsu Province, 80 km
west of Shanghai.
The new midstream facility has an annual metallic coating capacity of 250,000
tons and painting capacity of 150,000 tons and will provide employment for
approximately 300 local people, according to a company statement.
It will produce a range of products for China's rapidly growing building and
construction markets as well as supply BlueScope's own downstream network of
operations, the statement said.
The plant "enables us to produce tailored product offerings to respond even
more quickly to market developments and opportunities," the statement quoted
Kathryn Fagg, the company's president for Asian building and manufacturing
markets, as saying.
A Shanghai analyst said foreign steel companies had more opportunities to
make high-end and tailored products in the Chinese steel market.
Last month, French steel pipe maker Vallourec SA said it would build a plant
to make products to serve China's oil and gas companies in Changzhou, which is
also in Jiangsu Province. (For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
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