Krakatau Steel to up HRC by 1m tons

Krakatau Steel to up HRC by 1m tons

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

State-owned steel-maker PT Krakatau Steel revealed its plan on
Tuesday to expand its hot rolled coils (HRC) production by a
million tons per year by 2008 through the establishment of a new
plant that will cost between US$340 million and $550 million.

"When the new plant is ready in 2008, we expect our production
capacity to increase to 3.4 million tons annually," Krakatau
Steel corporate secretary Doni Sugihmukti told a press
conference.

Antara quoted Doni as saying that the production capacity
expansion was necessary to meet the firm's target by 2008 to
become a world steel supplier, with competitive prices.

Moreover, the company would undergo more expansion to become a
dominant world steel supplier with a likely production of up to
10 million tons by 2013.

Krakatau Steel's expansion and privatization project team head
Irvan Kamal said that a committee was conducting a pre-
qualification selection for potential bidders before opening the
bid internationally.

"The tender winner will be announced in January next year, so
the construction could start around June 2006," he said.

The development of the new plant, which will use the latest
technology of "thin slab caster", was expected to be finished by
2008, he added.

According to Irvan, a number of world steel contractors, which
have expressed interest in the project, are mostly grouped in a
variety of consortia. They include German-based SMS Demag, Korean
Samsung Corp., Hong Kong-based Cosco Engineering Construction and
Danneli of Italy.