Reuters reported that South Korea's Dongkuk Steel is reconsidering a plan to build a steel slab plant in Brazil jointly with local miner Vale, citing higher energy prices.

Dongkuk said in a filing with the Korea Exchange that rapidly changing energy market conditions and gas suppliers' requests for price hikes had made the project, initially announced in December 2005, less feasible. It added that "We faced difficulties in proceeding with the plan due to disagreements among investors."

Meanwhile, a Dongkuk spokeswoman said that a feasibility study was still ongoing for a separate larger project to build a joint blast furnace in Ceara with Value and Japan's JFE Holdings.

Italian foundry equipment maker Danieli and Brazil's national development bank BDNES are also partners in the project, which called for a USD 750 million investment to build a slab plant with annual capacity of 1.5 million tonnes in Ceara.
(Sourced from Reuters)