Vietnamese group to build $10 bln steel plant on south coast

• Formosa's toxic disaster: are fish safe to eat now in central Vietnam?
• Formosa offers $500 mln to compensate Vietnam for catastrophic environmental damage
• Formosa responsible for mass fish deaths: Vietnamese government

The Ministry of Industry and Trade has given permission for Hoa Sen Group, Vietnam’s largest sheet steel producer, to build a $10-billion plant in the southern coastal province of Ninh Thuan.

The plant will be capable of producing 16 million tons of steel per year, larger than Vietnam’s total steel output of some 15 million tons in 2015, and more than double the capacity of Taiwan’s now-infamous Formosa plant.

Hoa Sen Group plans to construct the plant in five phases from 2017 to 2031. Upon completion, the plant will generate about 45,000 jobs.

The project was approved amid growing public concern of the environmental impacts Taiwan’s Formosa plant had on a 200 kilometer stretch of the country's central coastline in April this year.

However, the company promised that it will work with local authorities to control sewage treatment and build a modern waste water treatment system.

Vietnam previously granted an investment certificate for the plant to a joint venture between the state-owned Vietnam Shipbuilding Industry Group (Vinashin) and Malaysia’s Lion Group.

It was the largest foreign-invested project licensed at the time with total investment of $9.8 billion.

Ninh Thuan Province revoked the investment certificate in 2011 after the two parties withdrew from the project due to financial difficulties.

Related news:

> Formosa's toxic disaster: are fish safe to eat now in central Vietnam?

> Formosa offers $500 mln to compensate Vietnam for catastrophic environmental damage

> Formosa responsible for mass fish deaths: Vietnamese government