HANOI -- Doubt has crept into Vietnam's ambitious drive to become a global steel power: Does Formosa Ha Tinh Steel, which began operating the country's first integrated steel plant a little more than two years ago, really want to go ahead with plans to build a third blast furnace?
FHS, as the steelmaker is known, appears to be torn. The company wants to help the government achieve its goal of making Vietnam, now Southeast Asia's most voracious steel consumer, a steelmaking nation that need not rely on imports.
