Krakatau still looking for partners to build iron ore plant
Tuesday, July 24 2007 - 01:32 AM WIB
State owned steel maker PT Krakatau Steel (KS) is still struggling to find partners to build a large-scale iron ore processing plant in South Kalimantan, Kontan Daily reported on Tuesday.
President Director of Krakatau Steel Daenulhay disclosed that eight foreign steel companies had voiced their interest in co-finance the US$400 million project but only India’s Essar Steel Ltd and Tata Steel looked determined to get involved in the project.
Other investors including Nippon Steel, LNM Group, Archelor Mittal, Posco, JFE and Corrus were still exploring the possibilities to join the project, he said.
Meanwhile, Director General of Metal, Machine, Textile and Miscellaneous Industries Anshari Bukhari said in Jakarta on Monday that the plant designed with the processing capacity of two million tons of ore had yet to secure enough iron ore supply guarantee, as it had only obtained a supply gurantee of 600,000 tons from PT Sebuku Iron Lateric Ores (Silo).
He said the government had asked KS to build two iron-ore processing plants in South Kalimantan, that is a big one with the processing capacity of 2 million tons of iron ore and a small one with the processing capacity of 300,000 tons. The projects are expected to be completed by 2009, he said.
The small plant has got iron supply guarantees from two Mining Contract (KP) holders in the region, namely PT Yinwa and PT Silo, Daenulhay earlier said.
“We shall use our internal cash to finance the development of the plant,” Daenulhay said in January this year, adding that the construction of the small plant was expected to be completed in 2008. (*)