Krakatau to add new facilities at second mill

By Romel S. Gurky

IDX-listed steel maker PT Krakatau Steel Tbk plans to add new facilities at its second hot strip mill to further bolster production capacity and product quality.

The company said in a statement on Monday following the ground-breaking to start construction of the second mill in Cilegon, Banten Province, the new facilities to be added in the future include reheating furnace, finishing mill, and down coiler to allow the mill to produce thinner hot rolled coil (HRC) steel of up to 1.2 mm, and increase company production capacity to 4 million tons per year.

Construction of the second US$460 million hot strip mill, with an annual production capacity of 1.5 million tons per year, will produce HRC steel of 600-1,650 mm in width, and thickness of 1.4-1.6 mm. It will increase Krakatau?s production capacity to 3.9 million tons per year. The second mill is expected to be completed early in 2019.

The second mill is being constructed by a consortium of SMS Group GmbH and PT Krakatau Engineering, a subsidiary of Krakatau Steel. SMS Group was the one which developed the first mill.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak