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.