Indonesia is the regional leader in Southeast Asia in terms of the number of new projects under construction and commissioned this year, and Vietnam is another country that has significantly increased its steel assets, according to messages from the steel industry associations of these countries made at the Conference on metallurgy in Southeast Asia, held in Thailand last week.
Indonesian state-owned Cilegon-based Krakatau Steel has commissioned a new 1.5 Mtpa blast furnace, while construction of a 1Mtpa blast furnace continues at the PT Gunung Group's steel plant in West Java and a blast furnace with a capacity of 3.5 million tons per year at the Chinese plant Delong Steel in central Sulawesi, according to the Indonesian Iron and Steel Association.
According to the Association's forecasts, an increase in domestic assets will help stop the flow of imports, which amounted to 7.6 million tons in 2018.
The build-up of Vietnamese steel assets will be carried out by private enterprises - Hung Tuong, Hoa Phat, Nam Thuan and Sunpro.
Vietnam's steel production is projected to grow 8-10 percent annually in 2019 and 2020. Crude steel production in 2018 increased by about 16 percent to 15.47 million tonnes, while steel imports, mainly from China, stood at 20 million tonnes.
