14 May, 2010 - Within the next two weeks Korea's Dongkuk Steel Mill expects to know whether Posco or JFE Steel or perhaps both might join its 3-6m tonnes/year slabs-for-export project in Brazil.
At Wednesday's commissioning Meeting of his company's new 1.5m tonnes/year plate mill at Dangjin, south of Seoul, Dongkuk chairman Sae-joo Chang noted that both Posco and JFE were currently reviewing the results of feasibility studies each had conducted.
"The conclusions will be released by the end of this month and we hope they will participate based on their own results," Chang said.
But a JFE spokesman in Tokyo insisted its study begun two years ago remains unfinished and when its results will be announced remains confidential. He confirmed, however, that JFE's new president Eiji Hayashida attended the 12 May ceremony and presumably had discussions with senior Dongkuk executives. JFE owns 15% of Dongkuk and is a key supplier of slabs.
Meanwhile, Chang announced that Dongkuk wants to lift total steel capacity to more than 10m t/y worldwide by 2015. Dongkuk's current capacity totals 7.5m t/y, comprising 4.4m t of heavy plates and 3.1m t/y longs at its Pohang, Busan, Incheon and Dangjin steelworks in Korea.
Posco and its engineering department Posco E&C have been consulting with Dongkuk on its Brazilian plans since early this year while JFE began its study in April 2008.
At Wednesday's commissioning Meeting of his company's new 1.5m tonnes/year plate mill at Dangjin, south of Seoul, Dongkuk chairman Sae-joo Chang noted that both Posco and JFE were currently reviewing the results of feasibility studies each had conducted.
"The conclusions will be released by the end of this month and we hope they will participate based on their own results," Chang said.
But a JFE spokesman in Tokyo insisted its study begun two years ago remains unfinished and when its results will be announced remains confidential. He confirmed, however, that JFE's new president Eiji Hayashida attended the 12 May ceremony and presumably had discussions with senior Dongkuk executives. JFE owns 15% of Dongkuk and is a key supplier of slabs.
Meanwhile, Chang announced that Dongkuk wants to lift total steel capacity to more than 10m t/y worldwide by 2015. Dongkuk's current capacity totals 7.5m t/y, comprising 4.4m t of heavy plates and 3.1m t/y longs at its Pohang, Busan, Incheon and Dangjin steelworks in Korea.
Posco and its engineering department Posco E&C have been consulting with Dongkuk on its Brazilian plans since early this year while JFE began its study in April 2008.
