Thailand Plans to Enter Global Export League with 30 Million Ton Steel Plant

---

Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources Incorporated; Houston, Texas). A major iron smelting and steel production plant, planned for development over the next fifteen years, would see Thailand change from being a net importer to being one of the world's top five exporters of the product, within that time span.

In mid-September, an $11.8 billion investment and project plan prepared by the Shaviriya Group (SG) was presented to the Thai industry minister, Pinij Jarusombat. Wit Viriyaprapaikit, Chief Executive of SG, asked the government for support in infrastructure investments.

The government is setting up a working committee to study ways and means of supporting the project, which will bring great benefits to Thailand not only in terms of export earnings, but also in import replacement. Currently, Thailand imports steel to the value of $5.7 billion a year. In full production the completed project would give the country a steel trade surplus of $ 12.8 billion.

The first $1.7 billion phase of the 30 million ton project, sited in the Bang Shan district at Prachuap Khiri Khan, would take 24 months to complete and have a production capacity of 4.5 million tons per annum. The second phase, of a total of five, would double the phase-one capacity, to bring the project to an output of nine million tons by 2010.

Subsequently the third phase would add another five million tons output by 2013 and the fourth phase a further eight million tons by 2016. The fifth and final phase would see another eight million tons added by 2019, bringing the targeted total to 30 million tons. To support the upstream steel mill project, SG is planning to invest $875 in power plants and port facilities.

SG plans to bring the iron ore feedstock for the plant from Australia to produce slabs and billets, which will be supplied to local manufacturers and exported as the raw material for flat and long-steel production.

SG is looking at various funding methods for the project that may include a stock listing, issuing debentures and seeking supplier credit. In the first phase 70% of the investment cost would be spent on purchasing local sourced materials and 10,000 workers would be employed at the construction site. SG has identified demand for the output from the first phase, which it hopes will facilitate the efforts to secure supplier credit.

View Project Report - 98300110