JFE Holdings Inc, Japan¡¯s second-biggest steelmaker, has abandoned plans to build a blast furnace in China and will instead build a new plant to produce steel sheets for use in automobiles, a Japanese business daily reported Thursday.

The Nihon Keizai said JFE¡¯s steel unit and its partner Guangzhou Iron & Steel Enterprises Group would invest more than 50 billion yen (US$426 million) on the new plant, which would start operating in 2009.

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