Cogne Acciai Speciali, Italian stainless steel long products mill, is planning to double its cold rolling output at its stainless steel plant in Changan, China by 2009.

Currently, this plant mainly produces 1,000 tons per month of stainless steel wire rod and cold drawn bras in diameter 5mm-30mm of grades 303, 304 and 316.

Around 80 percent of its output is sold in China, and the rest is sold to other Asian markets.

The director of Conge believes that there is a growing market in China for bigger sizes cold drawn bars and they could get more opportunities to sell more if they have enough capacity.

The total shipments at the company this year are expected to reach 189,000 tons.