CONF: Chinese steel projects to impact ASEAN market

The ASEAN countries will see about 45 million tonnes/year of crude steel capacity being added “if all the announced Chinese steel projects in ASEAN were to come on stream,” he told delegates.

Total steel output among the ASEAN-6, comprising Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Singapore, surged by 16% on year to some 43 million tonnes last year, with the on-year growth in output in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam topping 20%, according to Tan.

Hebei Iron & Steel Group, China’s second largest integrated steelmaker based at North China’s Hebei province and one of the Chinese pioneers exploring the ASEAN market, now has a larger ambition, according to the company’s senior engineer Lin Zhangguo.

HBIS has made practical progress about building an 8 million t/y integrated iron steel plant in the southern Philippines in next two years, Lin told Mysteel Global on the sidelines of the conference.

“Since China’s central government has prohibited the addition of new steel capacity in Hebei by any means, we (HBIS) have to shift our eyes overseas, especially to those emerging markets such as ASEAN,” he remarked. “We have substantial strengths and advantages to invest in ASEAN and to run (steel) projects there smoothly.”

In his presentation, Tan cited the example of Jianlong Group, another of China’s Top 10 integrated steelmaker and headquartered in Beijing, which plans to expand flat steel capacity of its slab plant in Malaysia from 700,000 t/y to 2 million t/y by 2020.

“Notwithstanding how many of these projects will eventually be realized, the flow of Chinese steel investments into ASEAN will, nevertheless, bring about significant changes in the landscape of the iron and steel industry in the region in the not too distant future,” Tan concluded.

Written by Venus Wang, wangyi@mysteel.com

Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com