Kobe Steel and Sojitz Constructs New Steel Plant in Vietnam

Kobe Steel, Japanese major steel maker, and Sojitz, Japanese major business house starts feasibility study of the production for the iron nugget by next generation direct reduction iron making process, ITmk3, in Vietnam with Vietnam government. Both companies exchanged memorandum with Vietnamese state president in Tokyo on Tuesday. Both companies use iron ore and coal in Vietnam, which produce iron nugget at 500,000 tonnes per year by ITmk3 and sell to local electric furnace makers. They conduct feasibility study for about one year. ITmk3 is new iron making process unlike blast furnace which was developed by Kobe Steel, which can produce iron nugget which is same quality against pig iron by blast furnace for about 10 minutes from iron ore and general coal. Kobe Steel constructs the first commercial plant of ITmk3 in Minnesota, USA and had just been decided to manage the plant with Steel Dynamics, American major electric furnace maker. Moreover, Kobe Steel is negotiation joint business project with Cleveland Cliffs, American major resource company in Michigan, USA, which is advancing feasibility study with some companies in India and Ukraine.