Indonesia: Dexin Steel's 6 mn t expansion rolls out

Indonesia's Dexin Steel's phase I expansion began on 18 Jan'22 with the ground-breaking ceremony of its 3 blast furnace in the presence of several of China's steel industry luminaries.

The first phase of expansion of Dexin Steel Co Ltd to 6 million tonnes (mnt) will start with the third, 1,780m3 blast furnace project in Qingshan Industrial Park, Sulawesi Island, Indonesia. After completion of the project, the annual production of molten iron in the iron-making division will increase to 6 mnt, which will make Dexin Steel the largest iron and steel enterprise in South East Asia, as per a report by Lange Steel.

Liu Xueqing, Executive Deputy Director of Dexin Steel Ironmaking Division, while launching the project, assured project will be in strict adherence to various technical regulations and specifications, to ensure safe, efficient and high-quality project construction.

He also assured that successful project completion and production from the third blast furnace will happen on time, ie, Dec'22.

2nd BF lit last year

It may be recalled that PT Dexin Steel Indonesia had fired up its second blast furnace of 1,780 cu m capacity at Morowali Industrial Park, Central Sulawesi in early Feb'21. This was to have been launched in May'20 but was pushed back due to the pandemic.

Post-the second blast furnace becoming operational, Dexin's crude steel production capacity increased to 3.5 mnt per annum, feeding re-rolling lines for rebar and wire rods with capacities of 1 mntpa and 500,000 mntpa, respectively.

The second BF also facilitated Dexin's production of slabs, billets, rebar, and wire rods.
In fact, billet production was to increase to over 200,000 tonnes per month (tpm) from the previous 120,000-150,000 tpm. This volume aimed to ease the supply tightness to South East Asia.

The first BF had been lit in end-Mar'20.

PT Dexin Steel is a joint venture between Delong Steel Group, Tsingshan Holding Group, IMIP (Indonesia Morowali Industrial Park) and Hanwa.