The Kunshan, Jiangsu Province-based center, to be equipped with a processing plant and storage facility, will be the company's first production site in China. Commercial use is expected in the third quarter next year.

Officials wouldn't disclose the processing capacity of the new plant, saying only that it has adequate room for expansion if demand grows.

Per Olof Stark, the company's marketing and sales director, said SSAB Oxelosund may not be a big player in the general steel industry, but it is a leader in the niche market for heavy plates that can be used in a range of applications such as excavators, loader buckets, cranes and truck bodies.

"The company also wants to be the No. 1 in the Chinese market (as it does worldwide)," Stark told reporters on the sideline of a machinery fair.

Mats Haglund, the company's manager for Asia Pacific region, said the firm will build a port facility near the Kunshan project for easier shipment.

The company's current operations in China include trading companies in Shanghai, Tianjin and other cities, along with several sales offices. The Swedish steel company entered China in 1999.

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