By Nicole Lundeen

VIENNA--Austrian specialty-steel company Voestalpine AG (VOE.VI) has signed an agreement to build a steel mill in China for its specialty-steel division, the company said Wednesday.

Voestalpine has signed a letter of intent to cooperate with the Chinese metal-casting company Kocel Machinery Co., Ltd. The Austrian company will invest 140 million euros ($178.03 million) to build a plant in the Ningxia province. Construction will begin in 2015 and is scheduled to be completed in 2017. The plant is expected to produce between 50,000 and 70,000 tons of special steel products for the automotive, consumer goods and mechanical engineering industries, Voestalpine said.

In the last financial year Voestalpine generated around 7% of its revenues in China. By the end of 2020, the company is hoping to triple the amount of revenue generated in the Asian country and will be building around 15 new plants in China until then.

Write to Nicole Lundeen at nicole.lundeen@wsj.com