The Chinese do not leave attempts to build a steel plant in Cambodia

At the end of last year in the capital of Cambodia passed the Chinese-Cambodian forum. The Chinese company Hangzhou Iron and Steel Group has proposed to the authorities of Cambodia. Chinese state company has proposed a draft of the country’s first steel plant. This will help reduce the country’s dependence on supplies from abroad.

Cambodia is in dire need of steel, in connection with the development of the construction sector. Now the quantity of imports in Cambodia comes from Vietnam and China. According to the Ministry of Commerce of the country, the annual proportion of steel, from abroad is two hundred sixty-thousand tons.

Proposed by the Chinese project proposes the construction of a small factory to rent near Phnom Penh. Enterprise should be a joint Chinese-Cambodian child. Hangzhou Iron and Steel Group does not deny the possibility of the acquisition of the shares. The Chinese side is willing to cooperate in sales of production technologies.

However, the Chinese side did not conceal the fact that there are a number of challenges for the implementation of the Cambodia project. For the development of metallurgy, will be required to make a number of obstacles. First, in Cambodia there is a lack of ports. This complicates the possibility of supply of raw materials for production. Sales of products and raw materials also will be complicated. Because Cambodia has a well developed transport network.

Earlier, the Chinese have tried several times to develop metallurgy in Cambodia. China Railway Group in 2013 was trying to implement a project worth eleven billion dollars. Investors intended to build an iron ore mine in Cambodia, as well as the steel mill and railroad. But in the end, the construction has not been implemented. A year earlier, Guangxi Nonferrous Metals Group (another state metallurgical company of China) has launched a project in the North of Cambodia. The cost of the construction was to be half a billion dollars. But in the end the construction was frozen. But in the past year, after the bankruptcy of Guangxi Nonferrous Metals Group, the project had to close.

Cambodian authorities are likely to approve the project. But whether it will be completed remains a mystery.