Siam United Steel to Improve Profitability

Nippon Steel group’s Thai cold rolling flat steel maker, Siam United Steel plans to clear 2.3 billion baht of cumulative loss during 3-year plan starting fiscal 2009. The firm tries to improve the profitability after the firm posted 1 billion baht of net profit for the year ending December 2007. The firm increased the output by 15% to 860,000 tonnes in 2007 from 2006 thanks to firm demand for automobile. The cold rolled flat steel represented more than 50% and the balance was material for galvanizing steel and tin plate. The firm tries to increase the sheet supply in 2008 when the firm expects Thai automobile output will increase to 1.4 million units from 1.3 million units in 2007. Thai cold rolled flat steel demand is annual 2 million tonnes. Siam United Steel increased the export to near 30% in 2007 from around 10% in 2006 when the domestic market was slow for construction and tinplate.