Japan's Kobe Steel to spend $484 mln to strengthen aluminium business

UACJ

10/05/2017 06:16

TOKYO, May 10 (Reuters) - Kobe Steel Ltd  5406.T  said on 
Wednesday it will spend about 55 billion yen ($484 million) to 
expand its aluminium business, buying 50 percent of a plant in 
South Korea and building a new facility in Japan, to meet 
growing demand from car makers.     
    Japanese aluminium producers such as UACJ Corp  5741.T  and 
Kobe Steel are stepping up global expansion plans to snare 
market share as automakers turn to the light metal to meet 
stricter environmental rules.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL4N19S394  
    Under an agreement with Novelis - wholly owned by Indian 
aluminium producer Hindalco Industries Ltd  HALC.NS  - Kobe 
Steel will pay $315 million to take a 50 percent stake in 
Novelis' existing aluminium plant in Ulsan, South Korea.  
    The plant has an annual capacity of 300,000 tonnes of 
cold-rolled aluminium, and Kobe Steel will take half of those 
semi-finished products, which it will send to factories in Japan 
and China for final processing and to sell on to auto parts 
makers.  
    Novelis and Kobe Steel plan to close the deal in September.  
    Kobe Steel will also spend 20 billion yen to build 
additional production lines at its Moka aluminium plant, north 
of Tokyo, to make auto panel materials. The new lines will add 
100,000 tonnes a year to Moka's production capacity. 
    Kobe estimates Japanese domestic demand for aluminium panel 
materials will grow to more than 300,000 tonnes a year by 2025, 
up from 40,000 tonnes a year now, a spokesman said.      
    China's demand will rise to 300,000 tonnes a year by 2025 
from the current 50,000 tonnes, he said.  
 
    ($1 = 113.7400 yen) 
 
 (Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Tom Hogue) 
 ((Yuka.Obayashi@thomsonreuters.com; +813-6441-1798; Reuters 
Messaging: yuka.obayashi.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: JAPAN KOBE STEEL/ALUMINIUM