Reuters reported that Indonesia"s steel output may fall up to 50% this year as manufacturers have slowed production to cut loses due to falling steel prices.
Mr Anshari Bukhari director general of metals, machinery, textile and miscellaneous industries at the ministry told reporters that Indonesia normally turns out about 4 million tonnes of steel products every year, but producers may only produce between 2-2.5 million tonnes this year.
Mr Bukhari said that “Producers have imported so much semi-finished products at higher prices. Now they can not sell the end products because steel prices have fallen. They have started to slow production in recent months.”
Mr Bukhari also said that “,The government also plans to tighten imports of semi-finished steel products to prevent an influx of imports.”
The industry ministry had said in September that imports of semi finished steel products including slab and billets reached 6 million tonnes in the first six months of 2008 as compared with annual imports of around 2 million tonnes previously.