Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics Group (FPG) has said it now hopes to start production at its Ha Tinh steelworks project in Vietnam in the fourth quarter of 2017. It will also inject $346 million in capital to the project to pay for environmental upgrades and working capital, Kallanish notes.

The investment will include real-time monitoring of water and air pollution and a facility to dispose of toxins in waste water, FPG executive vice president Chang Funing told Reuters. The plant is also adding coke dry quenching systems to reduce toxic waste water emissions.

Ha Tinh had planned to commission in early 2016 but the start up was halted after an environmental disaster which killed 100 tonnes of fish. The plant was forced to pay $500m in compensation and to delay start-up until 2017. It had then hoped to start production in March 2017, but that has now been delayed again.

The environment has become an increasingly fraught political issue in Vietnam, putting pressure on the government to be seen to be handling FPG firmly. The first phase of the project is planned to have 3.5 million tonnes/year of steelmaking capacity.