Taipei, May 15, 2008 (CENS)--Anticipating to be officially licensed by the Vietnam government this month, Formosa Plastics Group (FPG), Taiwan`s largest plastics and petrochemical conglomerate, will begin constructing the largest steel mill of its kind in Vietnam sometime in June.

FPG`s Formosa Heavy Industries Corp. is responsible for the construction of the steel mill in Vietnam. With high efficiency in operations, the FPG has put high pressure on such rivals as China Steel Corp. and E Untied Group with the latter having just begun constructing a steel mill in Vietnam at the end of last year. FPG will likely build the steel mill in Vietnam faster than E United Group.

FPG said its five major subsidiaries, including Formosa Plastics Corp., Nan Ya Plastics Corp., Formosa Petrochemical Corp., Formosa Chemical & Fibre Corp. and Formosa Heavy Industries Corp., have jointly set aside US$8 billion to procure 5,700 hectares of land to set up a large-sized integrated steel mill in Vietnam.

The proposed steel mill will be developed in two stages: The first will see FPG set up a blast furnace with annual capacity of 7.5 million metric tons with construction to be completed in 30 months, and the second will consist of expanding the annual capacity of the proposed steel mill by 7.5 million metric tons, reserving a capacity of five million metric tons for further expansion.

After coming online the proposed steel mill will have yearly production capacity of between 20 million and 30 million metric tons of steel products, becoming the largest of its kind in Southeast Asia.

The FPG`s proposed steel mill in Vietnam, once completed, will have an annual production capacity triple that of the parent steel mill run by China Steel Corp. in Taiwan, who is now Taiwan`s largest integrated steel producer.
(by Ben Shen)