VIENNA - Austrian steel-based technology company voestalpine AG announced Wednesday it has decided to invest about $180 million to build a new plant in China.

Voestalpine will construct the plant in the city of Yinchuan in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region together with Chinese multi-industry company Kocel Machinery Co Ltd, to produce premium steel products for the Chinese market.

The Linz-based company said at full capacity the new plant will produce between 50,000 and 70,000 tons of steel products each year, targeted primarily toward the automotive, energy, consumer goods, and mechanical engineering industries.

Construction of the plant is to begin in 2015 and will be completed in 2017, and is expected to employ 400 people.

The investment is part of voestalpine's plans to increase its revenues in Asia from $950 million in 2013/2014 to $2.5 billion by the year 2020.

The voestalpine group is currently active in 22 locations and companies in China at present, and said it planned to construct around 15 new plants in the country between 2013 and 2020.

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