The Export-Import Bank of China and Vietnamese Finance Ministry on Dec 21 signed a credit loan agreement worth $46 million to develop a steel project in Vietnam’s northern province of Thanh Hoa. The credit will fund Thanh Hoa Metallurgy Construction Corporation will use the load to build a steel ingot plant, capacity of 250,000 tons per year, the Thoi bao tai chinh newspaper reported Friday. This is one of the eight agreements signed during the three-day visit of Chinese member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party and vice president Xi Jinping from Dec 20-22. The signing of the agreement is aimed to specify the framework agreement on buyer’s credit incentives signed between Vietnamese Finance Ministry and the Export-Import Bank of China on October 22, 2008.
Vietnam is forecast to produce 9.8 million tons of steel in 2012, up 4% from this year estimate figure of nine million. (Thoi bao tai chinh Dec 23 p2, www.gafin.vn [1] Dec 21)
