Cilegon, Banten (ANTARA News) - The government will reduce its import duty on hot roll coil (HRC) to zero percent in a bid to encourage the growth of the country`s downstream steel industry, a minister said.<\/p>\n
\"Import duty on HRC will be eliminated,\" Industry Minister Fahmi Idris said after a ceremony marking the start of construction of a factory of PT BlueScope Steel Indonesia in Cilegon, Banten, Tuesday.<\/p>\n
He said the government would lower the import duty on HRC from currently five percent to zero percent to increase the competitiveness of the country`s steel industry.<\/p>\n
\"The higher costs in the upstream steel industry will lower the competitiveness of downstream steel products while at the same time we want to penetrate the global market,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Indonesia is still dependent on imported HRC as its largest steel maker, PT Krakatau Steel (KS), cannot yet fully meet domestic demand.<\/p>\n
\"We still import a large volume of HRC to meet domestic demand,\" Fahmi said.<\/p>\n
He said he did not believe the lowering of import duty on HRC to zero percent would have a negative impact on PT KS`s performance because HRC was only one of its various products.<\/p>\n
\"This is dilemmatic, but we have to make a choice which one is the most strategic,\" he added.<\/p>\n
During the past four years, steel imports had tended to increase following increased domestic demand.<\/p>\n
The volume of the country`s steel imports is expected to reach 1.5 million tons per year and that of domestic demand for steel six million tons.(*)<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesia-to-reduce-import-duty-on-hrc-to-zero-percent-1202817813", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }