Austria’s voestalpine has announced details of one of the 15 new plants it intends to build in China by 2020. It plans to build a 50,000-70,000 tonne/year special steel plant in Yinchuan in Ningxia province by the end of 2017, the steelmaker says.

The €140 million ($178m) plant will begin construction in 2015 as a partnership between voestalpine’s special steel division and Kocel Machinery Co., a Chinese subsidiary of Kocel Group. The plant will produce tool steels and forged products for the automotive, consumer goods and mechanical engineering industries, voestalpine adds.

Asia accounted for 7%, or €750m, of voestalpine revenue in financial 2013/2014 and it hopes to grow Asian revenue to around €2 billion by 2020. To this end it plans to invest €400-500 million in the region, including in 15 new plants in China. It currently operates 22 sites and subsidiaries in the country, the company confirms to Kallanish.