BHP mulling RI steel fate

BHP mulling RI steel fate

SANTIAGO (Reuters): Australia's Broken Hill Proprietary Co.
Ltd (BHP) is still monitoring the situation in Indonesia 11 days
after closing down four steel plants there, a BHP official said
here on Monday.

Robert Flew, group general manager international of BHP, told
Reuters the relative social calm this week is encouraging but
that BHP is still monitoring the situation.

"It's still too early to decide whether or not Australia's
largest industrial group, the Broken Hill Proprietary Co. Ltd,
will reopen its four steel plants in Indonesia that it closed
because of riots there," Flew said.

"I have not heard anything new. The situation is constantly
under review," Flew said during a break of the Pacific Basin
Economic Council (PBEC) meeting, which he was attending along
with other business leaders from the region.

BHP closed its steel coating and rolling plants situated close
to Jakarta on May 14 after violence broke out in the Indonesian
capital.