Posted on 09 Feb 2021
PT. Dexin Steel Indonesia (Dexin Steel), a Chinese-invested greenfield steelworks in Indonesia’s Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) in Central Sulawesi province last week blew in the second of a pair of 1,780 cu m blast furnaces, completing the commissioning of both production lines in the mill’s first-phase project, according to a company post on February 4.
The No.2 blast furnace was ignited on February 3, less than a year after the first unit was blown-in on February 21 last year, Mysteel Global noted. With the commissioning of the two furnaces, Dexin Steel aims to produce 3.68 million tonnes of molten iron in 2021.
Apart from the two blast furnaces, Dexin’s first-phase project also includes two 230 cu m sintering machines, three 600 tonnes/day lime kilns and two 5.5-meter coke ovens. It has a crude steel capacity of 3.5 million t/y.
For steelmaking, the steelworks hosts two 120-tonne converters, a 1 million t/y bar rolling mill and a 500,000 t/y wire rod rolling mill, as Mysteel Global reported.
Earlier on December 22 and 23 last year, the company ignited the No.2 sintering machine and hot-commissioned its No.2 converter and on June 8 last year, it commissioned the No.2 coke oven, according to Dexin Steel’s posts on its Wechat account.
Dexin Steel was established in 2018, with an investment of $980 million. It is a joint venture between Delong Holding Limited (Delong Holding), a steel conglomerate headquartered in North China’s Beijing municipality, and Tsingshan Group, a major stainless and carbon steel producer with steelworks in both China and Indonesia and the establisher of IMIP.
On October 10 last year, Delong Holding and Indonesia’s Ministry of Maritime and Investment Affairs signed a letter of intent on expanding Dexin Steel’s capacity to 20 million t/y. Dexin Steel has already started expanding on its project and when completed by the end of 2021, its capacity will reach 6 million t/y, according to Dexin Steel’s post.
Delong Holding’s decision to establish Dexin in Indonesia was to close the steel supply gap in the country and in the ASEAN region, and to meet the growth potential of steel consumption amid Indonesia’s fast-growing economy, Dexin Steel has noted.
In 2019, though Indonesia’s crude steel output topped 6 million tonnes, this was not enough to satisfy the country’s own consumption reqirements and resulted in over 10 million tonnes of steel being imported, mainly from China, Japan and South Korea, Mysteel Global notes.
Moreover, according to Li Xinchuang, president of China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, Indonesia’s steel consumption was seen exceeding 20 million tonnes last year.
“Structural steel to satisfy the building of infrastructure and housing will be the major steel products consumed, including rebar and wire rod for construction use. Meanwhile, auto sheet for auto manufacturing and stainless steel used in construction decorations will also see strong growth,” Dexin quoted Li as saying.
Source:Mysteel Global
