Batur village, a center of metal-casting industry

Batur village, a center of metal-casting industry

By Sulistyo Budi N. and Kartika Bagus C.

KLATEN, Central Java (JP): Towering piles of scrap iron are a familiar sight in Batur village in Klaten regency. For the village's residents, scrap iron is not waste. In fact, it is a source of income.

Scrap iron is raw material for the metal casting industry, of which the village is known for in Central Java. And for several decades, the residents have found the business has helped them earn a good living although some, especially small-scale businesses, have had to fight to survive.

A local resident, HM. Darissalam, could not remember when the industry began in the village but he said it had been there for years and was passed down from generation to generation.

In the 1960s, only a small number of residents were involved in the metal casting industry. Now, most villagers prefer running a business rather than being farmers.

"I earn more money doing this job than working as a farmer," explained Darmanto, a 49-year-old man who has been in the business for 10 years.

"As a farmer, I can only harvest crops three times a year at the most. But with this kind of work, I can get money anytime I receive an order."

According to village statistics, there were 198 members of metal-casting and machinery cooperatives between 1996 and 1998. Now the number has slightly increased to 200. Members of the cooperatives are grouped based on the products they produce.

Many products come from the metal casting industry. Some include machinery components for textile and agricultural industries, iron fences, frying pans, traditional irons which are heated by charcoal, hand pumps, meat grinders and agricultural equipment.

Taufik Khudlori, a son of the owner of the metal casting company Karya Aneka Logam, said his family set up the business in the 1960s. At that time, he said, they hired only three workers and produced a single product, machinery to hull rice.

At present, although the company is still using traditional equipment, it receives more orders, including for other products, such as meat grinders. It has also hired three more workers.

"But due to our limited capital and old equipment, we can only receive limited orders. We can't compare our company with the big ones which now use computerized machinery," Taufik said.

Most small-scale industries use kilns made out of iron sheets with an average diameter of 60 cm, a height of 2.5 meters and a width of 10 cm. The kiln for the metal-casting process costs Rp 1.5 million each. And to ensure the kiln will not melt during the process, it is covered with fire-resistant material.

The scrap iron for the business is bought at between Rp 1,300 and Rp 1,400 per kilogram, and each month, the company needs about 20 tons of raw material.

Charred firewood, coke and limestone are three kinds of fuel which are used for the melting process, which is conducted in stages.

First, pieces of scrap iron are put inside the kiln in stages and heated to between 900 and 1,200 degrees Celsius. After the scrap iron melts, the hot metal liquid will flow out and fall into an iron-made pail covered with fire-resistant material.

In the last phase, the hot metal liquid is then poured into a mold, which has been prepared based on the order.

Ready meat grinders with a diameter of 55 cm to 60 cm are priced at Rp 3.5 million each while one with a larger diameter of 65 cm can be sold for between Rp 4 million and Rp 4.5 million.

And within a month, the company might produce about six meat grinders and 100 machine components for waiting buyers from Klaten, Semarang, Yogyakarta and Surakarta in Central Java.