Sahaviriya Group Postpones Blast Furnace Project

Sahaviriya Group, Thai largest hot rolled steel sheet maker, postpones its blast furnace construction project for a year, which would have an output capacity of 5 million tonnes per year. The firm will start operation of the furnace in 2009, changed from originally planned 2008. One of reasons of the delay is Thai political change as well as slower advance in city planning and power transmission lines. Sahaviriya plans to build an integrated steel works with total crude steel output capacity of 30 million tonnes per year with total investment of 500 billion baht (approximately 1.65 trillion yen). However, the firm has not started the construction yet. The project seems to need longer time to be realized than the schedule. Sahaviriya originally planned to establish an integrated steel works during 2008-2020. In the first phase, the firm planned to build a blast furnace with annum 5 million tonnes output capacity with investment of 90 billion baht (approximately 300 billion yen). After the political change in Thailand, many large investment projects halted in the country. Sahaviriya waits for the new government replacement and postponed the blast furnace construction plan for 2009-2023, while set the amount of total capacity and investment unchanged.