Setbacks strike Ha Tinh alloy plant

Vung Ang Economic Zone

A source from Mangan Mineral, an arm of the state-owned Ha Tinh Minerals and Trading Corporation, said that it was still unclear whether its $11 million project would be kick-started in 2011.

“We expect that the project’s necessary procedures will be basically completed by the end of this year’s first quarter. But I can’t say definitively if that will be the case.

“The project is now being prepared. But the procedures are quite complex and its design process has been delayed for too long,” the source said.

The source also stressed that the foreign partner’s financial capacity to carry out the project was clear.

In December 2009, Mangan Mineral signed a memorandum of understanding with Taiwanese-backed company Stanco International Corporation on establishing a joint venture to manufacture ferromanganese, a material important for steel manufacturing, on six hectares in Vung Ang. The project is expected to be the first of its kind at the zone.

The same source early last year told VIR that if everything went smoothly, the project would kick off by the end of February or early March in 2010.

“We are now quite anxious about the project. We are seeking ways to implement it as quickly as possible,” he said.

If completed, the project will manufacture over 50,000 tonnes of ferromanganese annually. In the long-term it will provide the material to steel mills within the zone. However, because the Vung Ang-based mills are not yet operational, the short-term plan is to export and sell the ferromanganese to other steel mills around the country.

Currently, steel mills in Vietnam have to import a large quantity of ferromanganese from foreign countries at inflated prices.

Thai Van Hoa, vice chairman of the zone’s authority, told VIR that the authority had not received an official project investment document from Mangan Mineral and Stanco.

“They have yet to report the project’s size, technology and capital, and we haven’t seen an environmental impact report.

“If the project has negative effects on the environment, it will not be licensed,” Hoa said.

He said the two companies had already worked with the authority to establish a suitable location a year ago. “But they have not returned to the zone since then. And the locations they chose at that time were already given to other investors, who are quickly expediting the construction of their projects,” said Hoa, who is also director of Ha Tinh’s Investment Promotion Centre.

“The slowness of this project could mean they may have fewer opportunities to do business here. Most land at the zone has already been filled,” Hoa said.

The new project would use raw materials from Ha Tinh’s manganese ores. Other materials unavailable in Vietnam would also be imported for the project.

While Mangan Mineral specialises in trading and processing manganese and assorted materials for steel making, Stanco engages in raw materials for footwear insoles, rubber fillers, ceramics, fibreglass, paper-making, electric wire and cables and casting.

In late December last year, a $14 million ferromanganese manufacturing factory was inaugurated in Thai Nguyen province’s Song Cong No.1 Industrial Park by locally-owned Chien Cong Transport and Industrial Cooperative. The project has an annual capacity of 30,000 tonnes.