Vietnam seeks government approval for large steel projects

Vietnam seeks government approval for large steel projects.
Vietnam News Agency reported that ministry of industry & trade still advocates for large scale steel projects as it will next week ask the government to give a stamp of approval to expand the country’s master plan for steel development despite widespread concerns over environment pollution. Mr Le Duong Quang deputy minister of industry & trade said that the ministry would petition the government to include 10 new projects into the master plan for steel manufacturing development till 2015 with a vision to 2025. These include 5 huge foreign invested steel projects widely touted as environment friendly and currently waiting in the wings. He added that "The addition of the lately approved steel projects and others that already had memorandums of understanding into the master plan is based on a forecast of the demand for steel products both domestically and internationally in the future." Some of the mass steel project suggested for inclusion into the master plans is Formosa Sunco Steel Complex in Ha Tinh Province, a steel project of the JV between Vinashin and Malaysian Lion Group in Ninh Thuan Province, a JV steel project between Vietnam Steel Corporation and TATA Group and some other smaller ones. According to the national master plan for the steel industry in the 2007-15 period that was approved by the government in September 2007, the total annual demand for finished steel products of the country is some 6.5 million tonnes by to 2010 and up to 24 million tonnes by 2025. The demand this year is expected to be some less than 5 million tonnes. The industry and trade ministry said that there are 5 large steel projects that are waiting for investment certificates from authorities, and when all these projects are commissioned, they will turn out over 40 million of products a year, nearly twice the domestic demand by then. Mr Quang said that all the foreign invested steel projects currently awaiting approval would employ modern technologies to minimize impacts. Some even have plans to build their own power stations to serve their own production, and target to export some 50% of their outputs. He added that "The approval for mass steel projects needs to take into careful consideration three important criteria, comprising the real steel demand of the country, the supply of energy for steel production, and environment impacts." Mr Pham Chi Cuong chairman of Vietnam Steel Association said that with the real demand of steel products for Vietnam and for some countries in the region for the next 5 years. He added that "It is better and suitable for the country to have just 2 more steel complexes with total capacity from 5 to 10 million tonnes. A booming steel industry could lead to some undesired issues such as a supply glut, and fierce competition between steel manufacturers in favor of foreign invested ones."