A total of 15 smelters to start operation this year

The Ministry of Industry expects 15 nickel pig iron smelters at the Konawe Industrial Zone in Southeast Sulawesi Province to be able to start production by the end of this year, Koran Tempo reported Friday.

?Our target is that all these smelters can start production at the end of this year,? said the ministry?s Director General of Industrial Zoning and Development, Imam Haryono.

He said that the 15 smelters are part of the first stage nickel smelter industry project at the Konawe Industrial Zone managed by PT Virtue Dragon Nickle Industry.

Imam said that the 15 smelters, with combined capacity of 600,000 tons of NPI per year and investment of US$1 billion, are located on 500 hectares of land, requiring 569 MW of electricity.

He said that once the first phase development has been completed, the second stage will start construction. The project will have greater annual installed capacity of 1.2 million tons of NPI and 2 million tons of stainless steel higher, with investment requirement of $2.5 billion and requiring electricity supply of 1.440 MW. The project will be located on 700-ha of land.

The Konawe Industrial Zone is among of the national strategic projects. Together with industrial zones in Kolaka, Pulau Obi, Halmahera, and Morowali, it is envisaged to be the center of nickel smelters in the country with production capacity of up to 4 million tons per year. (*)