A management official of a Taiwanese-invested steelmaking complex worth about US$10 billion in the central province of Ha Tinh rejected Thursday reports that there are many Chinese investors joining in the project.
Vuong Van Tuong, deputy head of the management board of the
Formosa Ha Tinh , said he acknowledges reports that the Formosa Group, the investor of the megaproject in Vietnam, could be sold to Chinese investors, or the Chinese are holding the company’s stake.
“However, there is currently no Chinese capital at the Formosa Ha Tinh project,” he asserted during a media meeting in the province.
Taiwan-based Formosa Group, specializing in plastics, oil refinery, and petrochemical, initiated its Vietnamese project in 2008, aiming at setting up the largest steelmaking complex in Southeast Asia.
Tuong admitted that Chinese contractors are implementing major parts of the project.
“We were seeking contractors experienced in building steelmaking plants,” he said.
“While there are no recently-established steel facilities in the U.S., the EU or Japan, we found that China has had experience in building major plants in the last ten years.”
Chinese contractors beat Japanese and South Korean companies to win tender for the two most important units of the complex, including the cast iron and steel factories, according to Tuong.
The facilities will be designed, assembled, and constructed by Chinese firms, he said.
Other international contractors from Belgium, South Korea, and Taiwan are in charge of other parts of the project, he added.
Formosa Group announced that it would invest $10 billion in Vietnam. But it has been reported recently that the company is seeking bank loans in the Southeast Asian country, raising concerns about the financial ability of the Taiwanese firm.
In response, Tuong said Formosa will cover only $3.5 billion out of the intended $10 billion investment, and will borrow the remaining $6.5 billion.
The official asserted that Formosa completely disbursed $3.5 billion in March.
“You can verify this information with the State Bank of Vietnam,” he said. “We intend to borrow only $750 million in Vietnam.”
Tuong said the Formosa complex will not be producing construction steel, which already is in abundant supply in Vietnam, as recently reported.
“We are not making construction steel,” he said, adding that there might be some errors in translation.
Formosa has expected the first steelmaking plant under the project to be commissioned by May 2015, but the project management official admitted that he has no idea exactly when the firm could make it.
“It is because of the lack of employees,” he explained.
There used to be 26,000 laborers working on the construction site, but the number dropped to only 19,000 following the riots to protest China’s illegal drilling rig in the East Vietnam Sea in May, he said.
“Under the construction plan, we will need as many as 30,000 employees at the moment while the vacancies left by the Chinese workers remain unfilled.”
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Đăng ký: VietNam News