South Korea’s steelmaker POSCO starts operation of Indonesian plant

South Korea’s top steelmaker POSCO said it has started operations at its integrated Indonesian steel plant to meet growing demand in Southeast Asia. South Korea’s No. 1 steelmaker said the new steel plant, located in a major industrial city of Cilegon to the west of Jakarta, kicked off its operations with an opening ceremony attended by POSCO Chairman Chung Joon-yang and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, South Korean News Agency (Yonhap) reported. The opening came three years after POSCO launched a joint venture with Indonesia’s state-owned Krakatau Steel Co. to establish the integrated steel plant in the Southeast Asian country, with the South Korean firm holding a 70% stake in the US$3 billion project, POSCO said. With an annual production capacity of 3 million tons, the new plant is the largest overseas project of POSCO and accounts for 8.4% of the steelmaker’s annual production, the company added. POSCO said while the produced goods will be consumed domestically, some of them will also be shipped to other Asian countries and possibly to the Middle East in the future. The steelmaker added that 248 South Korean small- and medium-sized companies also participated in the project, which allowed them to share state-of-the-art steel technologies and seek a shared growth among industry players. The company added it will continue to make efforts to become a leading player on the back of its “steel belt,” a business alliance among China, Vietnam, Indonesia and India.