Posted on 12 Oct 2015
The country’s stainless steel
industry could grow aggressively over the next few years as demand from
infrastructure projects is forecast to surge, according to the Indonesian Iron
and Steel Industry Association (IISIA).
Rajesh Khosla, a member of IISIA, said on the weekend that the national
stainless steel industry would likely grow rapidly in the next five to seven
years, driven by the growing use of steel in infrastructure projects.
“It is estimated that infrastructure projects will consume more stainless steel
in the future,” he told The Jakarta Post.
The government is currently urging all domestic industries to boost their
output of downstream products made from mineral resources and thereby add more
value to their production.
The administration of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo aims to implement a number
of large-scale infrastructure projects, ranging from energy production to
transportation links.
Another member of the IISIA, Deepak Agarwal, said that unlike its neighbors,
such as Thailand, Indonesia currently used raw steel for many infrastructure
projects that would actually be better served with stainless steel.
Non-rusting stainless steel is commonly used for various applications from
eating utensils to water tanks.
The material — which contains a minimum chromium content of 10.5 percent — is
also used in a range of infrastructure projects, such as skyscrapers, bridges
and monuments.
At present, Indonesia lags behind other countries in the use of stainless steel
on its domestic market, Deepak said.
Indonesia’s annual per-capita consumption of stainless steel amounts to merely
0.6 kilogram, a far cry from the world's average per-capita consumption of 5.5
kg, according to IISIA estimates.
The country has an annual stainless steel production capacity of 150,000 tons,
but currently produces only around 100,000 tons, according to IISIA data.
That figure is far smaller than the country’s annual production of raw steel,
which amounts to some 4 million tons.
Rajesh said the Indonesian stainless steel industry was currently focusing on
developing its domestic market, with only around 30 percent of the total output
being exported.
Meanwhile, the Trade Ministry's
acting director general for foreign trade, Karyanto Suprih, urged local stainless
steel producers to boost their exports to Malaysia, as the neighboring country
had recently stopped its antidumping investigation on imported cold-rolled
stainless steel.
The Malaysian government announced in a statement dated Sept. 21 that it had
ended its antidumping investigation on imported cold-rolled stainless steel
from Taiwan, France, Hong Kong, Japan, China, Finland, Indonesia, South Korea
and Vietnam as it had found no material injury from the import activities.
IISIA’s Rajesh said, however, that the termination of the investigation would
not necessarily boost Indonesia’s total stainless steel exports significantly,
as only around 3 percent of national production was currently shipped to
Malaysia.
