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SIGNIFICANT: President of the MCC group, parent company of CISDI which is designing the PCI plant and undertaking Next-Gen studies, Mr. Zhang Mengxing addresses last year's Big Reveal in Whyalla.
GFG Alliance has informed the City of Whyalla that its 10 Mt Next-Gen Steel project has been listed as one of the top 16 most significant projects for China.
Read the GFG Alliance statement below:
The Chinese Government has recognised Sanjeev Gupta’s ‘Next‐Gen’ 10 Mt steel plant for Whyalla as one of 16 projects of national significance to China, at the Belt and Road CEO Conference held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday last week.
GFG Alliance signed an engineering feasibility contract for the project with the Chinese global engineering service provider CISDI, part of the Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC), in December last year.
GFG Alliance Executive Chairman, Mr Sanjeev Gupta attended the conference and said he was pleased that the ambitious ‘Next‐Gen’ plant had been identified as such an important project to the Chinese Government.
“This recognition demonstrates the significance of this once ‐in‐a‐lifetime project not only for the future of manufacturing and industry in Australia, and the long ‐term outlook for Whyalla but also for strengthening relations with China,” said Mr Gupta.
“The Next‐Gen steel plant is destined to be the largest and most efficient steel plant built outside of China in the last few decades. It will have the ability and infrastructure to double capacity in time. It will also be accompanied by a major expansion in our mining business to feed this plant on a long term competitive and sustainable basis.”
The state‐of‐the‐art steel plant will be part of the consolidated global LIBERTY Primary Steel and Mining business announced recently by GFG. It will focus on production of semi‐finished steel exported to downstream operations in key strategic and growing markets around the world.
While in Beijing, Mr Gupta signed a memorandum of understanding with the China International Capital Corporation (CICC), establishing a new strategic partnership between GFG Alliance and CICC to develop funding options for the Next‐Gen and other GFG projects.
Along with Chinese leaders, Mr Gupta also held a signing ceremony to mark the project’s partnership with CISDI and MCC at the Belt and Road forum.
“This is an exciting time for our business as our deliberate, strategic and sustainable expansion plans continue to take shape," Mr Gupta said.
"Next‐Gen will transform not only Whyalla, it will ignite a new industrial revolution in Australia, and it will be a significant development for the global steel industry.
"Making steel at world scale modern efficient plants in Australia rather than just exporting raw materials around the world is a compelling industrial strategy and we are very pleased to have this opportunity to embark upon this historic endeavour to give life to this dream.
“I look forward to strengthening our continued relations with China, partnering to create financing opportunities and bringing world‐class technology and engineering capabilities to Whyalla.”