The Thai unit of South Korea's Posco has broken ground on a continuous galvanising line plant.
Posco Coated Steel (Thailand) is setting up the factory to make high-end steel products to satisfy growing demand for automotive steel sheets in Thailand.
Construction started yesterday on the Rayong facility, which will have annual capacity of 450,000 tonnes.
The plant is expected to be finished in June 2016 at a cost of US$300 million.
The site is in the Amata City Industrial Estate, the epicentre of Thailand's automotive industry and close to Laem Chabang port and many steel buyers.
Thailand was the world's 10th-largest car maker last year, producing 2.5 million vehicles.
Global car makers have their own factories in Thailand and are Posco customers.
Posco will produce galvanised steel and galva-annealed steel to sell to car makers and auto-parts manufacturers.
The Thai subsidiary was established last November and purchased its first land this past March.
It received Board of Investment approval in June and passed its environmental impact assessment last month.
Posco makes galvanised steel sheets for cars at its factories in Mexico, China and India. Once the Thai plant is finished, annual foreign production capacity of automotive steel sheets will increase to 2.2 million tonnes by 2017.