Krakatau Steel is an Indonesian state-controlled company, and its new blast furnace in Cilegon of Banten province, West Java will be operated next month with annual capacity of 1.2 million tons. The original schedule was planned to put into production in the second quarter. After inputting new blast furnace, the company could reduce its dependence on imported slab.

Currently, imported volume for company's demand was about 600,000 tons of slab per year. Krakatau's new hot-rolled strip mill with annual capacity of 1.5 million tons will be completed in the third quarter of 2019, and it was expected to be put into operation in the fourth quarter.

While new mill started production, annual capacity of hot-rolled coil will increase to 3.9 million tons. Krakatau mentioned the project will raise sales volume this year by 20% year on year.

Last year, Krakatau's steel sales was 1.9 million tons, of which hot-rolled coils accounted for around 1 million tons and exports at 31,000 tons, cold-rolled coils accounted for 567,000 tons, long products accounted for 233,000 tons, and rebar and electric resistance welded pipes accounted for 93,000 tons.