Kobe Steel to set up its own port in Vietnam-Nikkei~

TOKYO: Kobe Steel Japan's fourth-biggest steelmaker, will invest up to $365 million to set up a port facility in Vietnam to be used exclusively by the company, the business daily Nikkei reported on Saturday. Kobe Steel will invest about 20-30 billion yen ($244-$365 million) until 2013 to build cranes and other infrastructure at the port in the country, the paper said.

The steelmaker decided to set up its own port as it thought it would be more cost efficient than using an existing port and sharing with others as it had originally planned, the Nikkei said.The Japanese steelmaker has said it plans to build a $1 billion iron-making plant in Vietnam, capable of producing 2.4 million tonnes per year of iron nugget from low-grade iron.

The plant will be built in the northern province of Nghe An this year and begin production in early 2013. The material from the plant will be sold in Vietnam, as well as to be exported to Japan and other Asian countries, the newspaper said.($1=82.10 Yen)