SSO to stick with steel mill

Surin dismissed a news report that the SSO was not happy with the Sahaviriya Group's treatment of locals in Prachuap Khiri Khan in its conflict with them over a proposed steel mill there.

The SSO began investing in Sahaviriya Steel Industries (SSI), which initiated the controversial steel mill project, in 2002. The SSO now owns 165 million SSI shares, or around 12.7 per cent of the total stocks, worth about Bt140 million.

A source said the SSO had basically no say in SSI's business practice and policy, but could consider withdrawing the investment if the steel mill was to have "negative effects" on the public as a whole.

Sahaviriya Group had earlier sent a statement to the Office of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy and Planning (ONEP) saying that it would halt large-scale earth-levelling work until its environmental impact assessment (EIA) was approved by the ONEP.

ONEP has already rejected the group's EIA plans twice.

The Nation