French firms supply aluminium technologies to local companies

December 12, 2014 | 16:02

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A number of French firms have succeeded in their goal to provide local partners with technologies to directly produce aluminium from Vietnam’s substantial bauxite reserves.

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Frederic Sanchez, president of the France-Vietnam Medef International Business Council and chairman of French industrial engineering FIVES company, told VIR that FIVES had just inked a memorandum of understanding with a domestic private firm to transfer technology that allowed the direct production of aluminium from bauxite in Vietnam.

The local partner’s name however, was not revealed.

Other sources however did say that the amount of the investment was significant and that around five French firms were providing the technology to Vietnamese partners with total contract values in the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Sanchez said France’s aluminum production technology was ranked number one in the world.

France has 12 leading firms with this kind of technology, for example Alstom and BNP Paribas, which are also looking to do business with Vietnamese partners.

“Vietnam’s bauxite reserves are reportedly the third biggest in the world. The Vietnamese government doesn’t want to export bauxite any longer. It wants to produce aluminium from bauxite here at home, and they are seeking suitable technologies,” he said.

Aluminium is used for production in many industrial sectors like automobiles, motorbikes and aircraft.

In early September 2014 construction started on Vietnam’s first aluminium plant, capitalised at $575 million.

The 114 hectare plant, invested in by locally-owned Tran Hong Quan Trading Ltd, is located in the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong’s Nhan Co Industrial Park. It will produce aluminium bars with the capacity of 450,000 tonnes per year.

By By Nguyen Dat

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