Dexin Steel Indonesia fires up second blast furnace at Morowali

Singapore — PT Dexin Steel Indonesia fired up its second of two 1,780 cu m blast furnaces at Morowali Industrial Park, Central Sulawesi on Feb. 3, which was initially targeted to launch May 2020 but was pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic, a source from the company said.

With the second blast furnaces, or BF, running, PT Dexin has an overall crude steel production capacity of 3.5 million mt/year, feeding re-rolling lines for rebar and wire rod with capacities of 1 million mt/year and 500,000 mt/year, respectively.

With the new furnace online, the steelmaker boasts production of products such as slab, billet, rebar, and wire rod.

"The billet production of PT Dexin will double to over 200,000 mt/month from a current 120,000-150,000 mt/month, which will ease the tightness of supply in Southeast Asian market," a southern Chinese trader, who was a close partner of the steelmaker, told S&P Global Platts.

The first BF was fired up on March 30, 2020, and a third BF, now under construction, is scheduled to begin operations in December 2022 and will put output to 6 million mt/year.

Additionally, the steelmaker is expanding its capacities with a third blast furnace undergoing construction at the Morowali industrial Park, and targeted to start operations in December 2022, which when completed, will boost its total output capacity to 6 million mt/year.

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

Delong Steel Singapore Projects, a subsidiary of Chinese steelmaker Delong Holdings, has a 60% stake in the venture and Hanwa 10%, a Dexin Steel source said.

The joint venture is currently also choosing sites in Indonesia for further production boost, totaling 14 million mt/year in fresh capacity, bringing the steelmaker's plan for a collective output to 20 million mt/year.