E-United is expected to work with the management board of Dung Quat Economic Zone in the central province this Friday to decide whether it will proceed with the steel project or not.

However, Dung said E-United still wants to proceed with the first stage of the project but the scheme has not been discussed in detail.

“At the upcoming meeting, if the investor wants to move on, it has to pledge to follow a clear construction road map otherwise the province will consider returning investment costs to the investor. The province will pay back to the investor what it has spent legitimately,” Dung said.

The investor has invested around US$40-50 million in the project, Dung said.

Dung reiterated that if the investor still wants to continue the project, the province will only approve construction of the first phase it registered earlier.

The local government has allocated 330 hectares of land to the investor and would not allow expansion. Dung stressed that the investor has to submit a clear construction pace to follow and it will be fined if it fails to do this.

The project was licensed in 2006 and has not been able to turn out any product so far though it has since been handed over to four investors.

In 2010, the investors asked for approval to raise capital from US$3.5 billion to US$4.5 billion with annual production capacity rising from five million to seven million tons.

The project comprises of two furnaces with capacity of 3.6 million tons a year each and other facilities such as ports, material sections and maintenance stations.

Source: The Saigon Times