DORSET-BASED steel rolling mill manufacturer VAI UK is to make "the world's widest slab caster" as part of a new £35 million deal in China.

The contract with the Nanjing Iron and Steel Co (Nisco) is for the engineering and supply of a plate slab caster and plate mill.

VAI UK will have overall technical responsibility for the complete process line integration.

Nisco's new facility in Jiangsu Province will produce a wide range of products from structural and shipbuilding plates to high-quality pipeline grades.

The new slab caster will be capable of casting at least one million tonnes per annum of 3.25-metre wide 150mm thick slabs.

Slab production will start in January 2004 with plate production following a few months later.

VAI UK will provide the engineering, process technology, imported equipment, technical services and training for the complete process line. The firm will also supply the complete electrical and automation package.

VAI UK MD Roy Tazzyman said: "This is a tremendous achievement. This is regarded as one of the most significant contracts to be awarded in China this year."

VAI UK was established in 1996 in Poole by parent company VAI as a technical centre of excellence specialising in rolling mills, process lines and automation.

In 1999 VAI acquired Kvaerner Metals Equipment (formerly the Davy Group).

VAI UK employs around 450 staff at two offices in Poole plus sites in Stockton on Teesside and Sheffield.

Its Austrian parent VAI (Voest-Alpine Industrie-anlagenbau GmbH) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of VA Technologie AG (VA Tech).