Kobe to buy stake in RI firm

Kobe to buy stake in RI firm

TOKYO (Nikkei): Kobe Steel Btd. will buy an estimated 30 percent - 40 percent of PT. Intan Pertiwi Industri (INTIWI), a Jakarta-based manufacturer of welding electrodes, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported in its Thursday morning edition.

The investment is part of a larger overall plan to Strengthen welding operations because they offer good profit margins

INTIWI, with annual production capacity of 20,000 metric tons, holds some 50 percent of the Indonesian electrode market. Kobe Steel has provided technologies to the Indonesian company in the past. INTIWI, for its part, has produced and marketed electrodes under the Kobe Steel brand.

Kobe Steel has spent a total of 1.2 billion yen to buy stakes in five electrode makers in Thailand, Singapore, South Korea and the Netherlands. These investments helped bring the group's annual electrode production capacity to 200,000 tons. Kobe Steel itself possesses capacity of about 150,000 tons.

The Kobe Steel group currently holds a 7 percent share of the world's electrode market, ranking it third. Its target is to raise the share to 10 percent, which would put it in second spot.