OREANDA-NEWS. JFE Steel Corporation announced that its wholly owned subsidiary JFE Steel Galvanizing (Thailand) Ltd. held an opening ceremony for a continuous galvanizing line -Thailand's first for automobiles -at its production facility in the Hemaraj Eastern Seaboard Industrial Estate of southeast Thailand's Rayong Province on November 11, 2013. The line began its operation in April.

The ceremony was attended by many invited guests, including Mr. Prasert Boonchaisuk, the Thai minister of industry, Mr. Kiminori Iwama, Economic minister of the Embassy of Japan in Thailand. JFE Steel' President and CEO Eiji Hayashida and Senior Vice President Hiromu Oka also attended.

Thailand, the biggest automobile-producing country in Southeast Asia, hosts the production and export bases of numerous automakers. JFE Steel expects the demand for its high-grade automotive steel sheets to rise in line with increasing automotive production capacity and plant construction in the country.

JFE Steel, strengthened by its new continuous galvanizing line in Thailand, looks forward to supporting the expansion plans of automakers by meeting their growing demands for locally procured materials and sophisticated products and services.