Vietnam Steel Corporation (VNSTEEL) , Vietnam's largest steel company today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Tata Steel Limited, Asia's first private sector steel producer, for the proposed Cold Rolling Mill complex in Vietnam. Mr. Dau Van Hung, President of Vietnam Steel Corporation and Mr. Hemant Nerurkar, Chief Operating Officer (Steel) of Tata Steel signed the MoU today at a ceremony in the corporate office of VNSTEEL, Hanoi in the presence of senior government officials of Vietnam, His Excellency Lal T Muana, Indian Ambassador to Vietnam, Mr Mai Van Tinh, Chairman VNSTEEL, Mr Indronil Sengupta, Chief Executive (South East Asia Projects) of Tata Steel and other officials of VSC and Tata Steel.

Tata Steel already has a Joint Venture with VNSTEEL in Rolling Mills through NatSteel, which is a Singapore based subsidiary of Tata Steel. Moreover Tata Steel and VNSTEEL are in the process of carrying out a feasibility study for a steel project in Ha Tinh province for which a MOU was signed on 29th May 2007 in Hanoi. The proposed Cold Rolling Mill project will further strengthen the collaboration between VNSTEEL and Tata Steel.

Tata Steel in cooperation with VNSTEEL will undertake a feasibility study for the Cold Rolling Mill Project. On the successful completion of the study and financial closure, Tata Steel will have a stake of 65% and VNSTEEL will have a stake of 35% in the CRM complex.

Vietnam, with a GDP growth of over 8% and per capita steel consumption of over 85 Kgs, is on the threshold of a significant increase in steel consumption including value added steel. Both the companies firmly believe that the simultaneous development of the domestic primary steel and value added steel production is fundamental to the sustainable growth of the steel industry in Vietnam.

Vietnam Steel Corporation was established in 1995 by a merger of Vietnam Metal Corporation and Steel Corporation. VNSTEEL is Vietnam's largest steel company and has various manufacturing plants and a distribution system across the country. VNSTEEL is a pioneer in partnering with foreign partners in steel manufacturing and has foreign joint ventures and joint stock companies in which it holds large stakes. The total capacity of VNSTEEL including that of its joint ventures is around 2 million tonnes with a product mix ranging from crude steel, high quality construction steel to sheet and plate products serving other economic sectors. In addition, VNSTEEL also has businesses in other areas such as mining, real state, sea ports etc.

About Tata Steel

Established in 1907 as Asia's first integrated private sector steel company, Tata Steel today is world's sixth largest steel producer with geographic footprints in India, South East Asia, UK and Europe. With the recent acquisition of Corus, the combined enterprise has a crude steel capacity of 25.6 million tonnes with over 84,000 employees across the four continents. Tata Steel has world class steel making facilities and has been rated as the world's best steel company for the past three consecutive years by World Steel Dynamics. Tata Steel has also set benchmarks in the fields of corporate social responsibility and corporate governance and it firmly believes in improving the quality of life of its employees and the communities it serves.

The cooperation between VNSTEEL and Tata Steel signals the beginning of strong growth of the Steel Industry in Vietnam. We believe that this partnership will result in remarkable success.