BEIJING, Dec. 25 -- Beijing Shougang Co., the publicly traded unit of the country's fourth-largest steelmaker, said Saturday it will buy a 23.6 percent stake in the domestic partner of Hyundai Motor Co. to boost sales of cold-rolled sheets for automobiles.

    Beijing Shougang will pay 1.06 billion yuan (US$136 million) to its own parent for the stake in Beijing Automotive Investment Co., the steelmaker said in a statement to Shenzhen Stock Exchange. The payment is 524 million yuan in cash and 536 million yuan in assets, the Beijing-based company said.

    The tie-up will boost Beijing Shougang in supplying cold-rolled sheets for an automaking industry poised to become the world's third largest. Beijing Hyundai Motor Co., a joint venture between Beijing Automotive and Hyundai Motor, South Korea's largest automaker, has production facilities in the same industrial park as the steelmaker.

    "The acquisition will improve Shougang's profit by giving it priority for orders from Beijing Hyundai,'' said Zhou Xizeng, an analyst at CITIC Securities Co. in Beijing. "Cold-rolled sheets are among the company's most profitable products,'' said Zhou.

    China will be the world's third-largest automaker by the end of this month, after the United States and Japan, surpassing Germany, Xinhua said, citing the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers.

(Source: Shenzhen Daily)