Japan-Indonesia Partnership in Steel Industry
Thursday, 18 January, 2007 | 15:13 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: The Department of Industry is supporting a local steel company, PT Cakra Steel, to set up a partnership with Nippon Steel Co. Ltd., Japan, in order to establish a special steel factory.

Ansari Bukhari, Director General of Metal, Machineries, Textile and Multifarious Industries at the Department of Industry, said that in order to smoothen the investment plan, Cakra Steel must fully comprehend the terms and conditions that Nippon Steel has proposed.

“One of the conditions is the availability of iron ore raw materials in Indonesia,” he said.

Another condition, Ansari explained, was promising market potential and the availability of technology.

In regard with the using of technology for special steel processing, Nippon Steel is not yet fully ready for transferring this technology to Indonesia.

The government said it understands Nippon's attitude, taking into account that only a small amount of world steel manufacturers possessed the ability of processing special steel.

The government, said Ansari, was only acting as the facilitator.

The partnership was intended to reduce import dependency on special steel by the automotive and electronic sectors.

Each year, these sectors import special steel valued to US$1 billion or 1.5 million tons in volume.

MUHAMAD FASABENI