The Indonesian Iron and Steel Industry Association (IISIA) executive director, Hidayat Trisepoetro, said on Tuesday that the global steel industry was in an alarming condition, reflected by huge losses reported by leading steel manufacturers around the world.
“The losses affecting the world steel industry are the result of the global economic condition that did not improve in 2013,” he said in Jakarta on Tuesday (4 Mar. 2014), as quoted by Antaranews.
With such a condition, Hidayat said, the domestic steel industry could do nothing but try and prevent suffering bigger losses.
He said that up until now, the IISIA had yet to predict when the steel industry would recover, as it depended on global economic conditions.
In the current global market, the price of raw steel materials is high while the global price of steel has continued to fall.
At Krakatau Steel, for instance, the price of hot-rolled coil (HRC), which is the company’s prime commodity, has depreciated by 13%, followed by other products comprising cold-rolled coil (CRC) by 9%, wire rod 11%, and profile steel 13%, due to the current state of the global steel industry and fluctuating US dollar exchange rate.
Hidayat said the government should have taken preventative measures to ease pressures, including tackling unfair trade practices conducted by several steel producers.