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JFE Steel Acquires Stake in Vietnam's Sun Steel
Mar. 2, 2010 JFE Steel Corp. has acquired 16.64 million shares, or 8%, of Sun Steel Joint Stock Co. (SUNSCO), a leading manufacturer of galvanized steel sheet and steel pipe in Vietnam. The shares were purchased from Maruichi Steel Tube Ltd., which remains the leading stakeholder in SUNSCO.
JFE Steel says it will cooperate closely with SUNSCO to support customer acquisition and market development in the Indochina region, where the demand for steel products mainly for construction and infrastructure is expected to be strong. As part of the new arrangement, JFE Steel will provide SUNSCO with a stable supply of hot-rolled sheets over the long term.
SUNSCO, which is capitalized at 130 million USD, is based in the suburbs of Ho Chi Minh City and headed by Yuji Wada from Maruichi Steel Tube. The company sold about 150,000 tonnes of steel sheets, bars, and pipes in 2009 and estimates that this figure will increase to about 200,000 tonnes in 2010.