E United Group, Taiwan’s leading producer of steel products, will budget NT$10 billion to build a nickel-iron alloy plant in Ningde of Fujian province, China, with designed annual capacity of 300,000 metric tons, construction to begin sometime in September this year, and the plant to offset impact from volatile nickel prices.

E United chairman I.S. Lin said the plant will begin construction as soon as its environmental impact assessment is passed, and the plant will help his group to integrate production of steel products in China.

At present, E United Group has four business units, including manufacturing, medical, education, and property and recreation, and aims to score NT$300 billion in total sales this year.

E United is the world’s seventh-largest and Asia’s second-largest manufacturer of stainless steel, with major stainless-steel subsidiaries including Yieh United Steel Corp. in Taiwan and Lianzhong Stainless Steel Corp. in Guangdong province, China, with three million metric tons of stainless steel yearly capacity.

An executive of the E United Group noted the Ningde plant will be developed in two stages. After the first-stage development is completed, the plant can roll out 30,000 metric tons of pure nickel plus 300,000 metric tons of nickel-iron alloy per year, which will be fully supplied to Lianzhong Stainless Steel and Yieh United Steel.

After the second-stage development project is completed, the plant will see annual production capacity amount to 60,000 metric tons of pure nickel and 500,000 to 600,000 metric tons of nickel-iron alloy.