Posted on 30 Nov 2023
The Indonesian Iron and Steel Industry Association (IISIA) and the Indonesian government do not want induction furnace steel used in government projects, an IISIA official says. Public projects can only use continuous cast steel and induction furnace mills do not have continuous casters. “It is difficult for the IISIA to object to the operation of IF mills unless the EAF and BF mills can fully supply to the demand of the country," he notes.
“We need to make sure that the EAF and BF mills can fully supply to the market before we ask for a ban of such IF mills,” he says. But it is an issue also that the price gap between IF and BF/EAF steel means there is an ongoing demand for IF steel. “There is no agreement as yet when and how we can tackle this problem,” he says. However, the government is already taking steps to ensure that air pollution controls are in place by conducting checks at steel mills in Jakarta.
Efforts to check on the prevalence of IF mills producing low-quality steel are “very difficult,” says a mill manager with a Japanese long products jv in Indonesia. He knows of instances whereby the mill will submit good quality products of good tensile strength and chemistry for testing when they apply for SNI registration. But after receiving the SNI mark, they will produce inferior quality steel because there is no continuous monitoring afterwards.
There are also IF mills which are selectively supplying different qualities of steel for different projects, depending on the stature of the project. The better known projects will be sold selectively controlled grades. Also, for steel sold in outlying provinces, the mills are able to get away with lower quality steel because of less government monitoring.
Indonesia is in a difficult position if all the IF mills were to close. This is because of the high percentage of total steel being made in the IF mills. He estimates that a minimum 50% of the total 8-9m tonnes of rebar produced are made in the IF mills. The induction furnace steel produced therefore supports Indonesia's economic growth, he notes. There are around 150 rebar makers in total in the country. But those making good quality rebar number 10-20 only, he adds (see separate report).
Source:Kallanish
