SMI to complete third NPI smelter in May 2017
Friday, September 9 2016 - 01:14 AM WIB
PT Sulawesi Mining Investment (SMI) said that construction of its third nickel pig iron (NPI) smelter in Morowali, Central Sulawesi, is targeted to be completed in May of next year, which will increase the company?s total NPI capacity to 1.2 million tons per annum from the current 900,000 tons per annum.
Alexander Barus, Vice President Director of SMI, said that construction progress of the NPI smelter expansion project has now reached 40 percent.
Alexander said that the entire NPI output from the smelter is allocated for a nearby stainless steel plant, which is also owned by SMI, a joint venture between Indonesia?s Bintang Delapan Group and China?s Tsingshan Group.
SMI operates a 1 million-ton per annum stainless steel plant in Morowali. The company plans to build a second stainless steel plant with the same capacity, which is targeted to be also completed in 2017.
Alexander said that to produce stainless steel, the company will require NPI and ferromanganese chrome. While the NPI will entirely come from its smelter, it has to import the ferromanganese chrome. The company plans to set up a facility to produce own ferromanganese chrome in the future, he said.
Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak