VinMetal, the steelmaking arm of Vietnamese conglomerate Vingroup (VIC), has contracted Italy's Danieli & C. Officine Meccaniche S.p.A. (DAN) to provide the main equipment for a rolling line for heavy rail and structural steel in central Vietnam, The Investor reported on October 16. The line will be built at the VinMetal Ha Tinh Iron and Steel Complex and is designed to produce 700,000 tonnes a year.

As reported by The Investor, Vietnam is increasing public spending on high-speed railways, ports and heavy industry. VinMetal said producing rail and structural steel at home would help secure supplies of raw materials, lower the country's dependence on imports and give local companies a bigger role in supply chains.

Danieli will design, build, deliver and commission the core machinery for the line under the contract, which the two companies signed on October 15.

VinMetal (VIC) plans to sell the output to major national infrastructure projects. These include high-speed rail, urban transit, industrial zones, bridges, ports and logistics centres. The company called the partnership with Danieli a step towards domestic production of specialty steel and part of a wider move into specialised segments of the market.

The Ha Tinh complex is in the Vung Ang Economic Zone. Its first phase is designed for roughly 6mn tonnes of steel a year, and a second phase would raise capacity to as much as 20mn tonnes. VinMetal (VIC) said technology transfer from international engineering groups would make Vietnam more self-reliant in key industrial materials and its steel industry more competitive globally.

The Danieli deal follows a contract VinMetal (VIC) signed in June with Primetals Technologies to supply steelmaking, continuous casting and rolling technology for the same site. Primetals was created by merging Germany's Siemens VAI with Japan's Mitsubishi-Hitachi Metals Machinery and is now owned by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.

That agreement covers three 200-tonne basic oxygen furnaces, ladle furnace refining and RH vacuum degassing units, two slab casters and an eight-strand billet caster, high-speed rolling mills for wire rod and bar, and a hot-rolled coil production line.