KL to sell off steel firm

KL to sell off steel firm

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): The Malaysian government said Monday it is considering selling Perwaja Steel, which has recorded losses totaling billions of dollars.

Deputy Finance Minister Shafie Mohamed Salleh said the government would consider offers for its wholly-owned steel maker from any financially able company that also has the necessary expertise.

He told the Senate (upper house of parliament) that a study by the Corporate Debt Restructuring Committee showed that the local steel industry suffered badly from the (1998) economic downturn and from low demand.

Perjawa, sited in the northeastern state of Terengganu, was planned as the centerpiece of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's industrialization drive in the early 1980s.

Instead the plant became one of the country's most spectacular corporate disasters.

It had accumulated losses and liabilities totaling 9.9 billion ringgit (now US$2.6 billion) by 1996.