"The loan is part of the fund needed to build a blast furnace complex."Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Publicly traded steel maker PT Krakatau Steel Tbk (KRAS) has secured a syndicated loan of Rp1.899 trillion (US$200 million) from a number of Chinese banks.
The banks include China Development Bank Corporation (CBD), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China Limited (ICBD), and the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC), Irvan K. Hakim, the president of the state company said in a statement published here Friday, adding that the loan was signed on 15 August 2012.
"The loan is part of the fund needed to build a blast furnace complex with a production capacity of 1.2 million tons a year," Irvan said here on Friday.
He said the contractor to build the factory is a consortium of MCC-Capital Engineering & Research Indorporation Limited (MCC-CERI), MCC-ACRE and PT Krakatau Engineering.
"The syndicated loan to be repayable in in eight years include US$80 million from CBD, US$80 million from ICBC and US$40 million from HSBC," he said.
MCC-CERI will be in charge of the job of engineering, procurement and supervision for the blast furnace, sintering plant, material handling and general facilities worth US$321.9 million.
The job of engineering, procurement and supervision of coke oven plant is to be handled by ACRE Cokong & Refractory Consulting Corporation.
PT Krakatau Engineering will do the job of civil construction, steel structure and erection for the complex of the blast furnace.
The Rp5.92 trillion project is expected to cut the production cost for steel slabs , reduce imports of steel basic materials by using locally produced iron ores and coal to increase profit margin.
Construction of the blast furnace began in the third quarter of 2011 to be completed in the first or second quarter of 2014.
The factory is being built in Cilegon, Banten, where the state steel maker has an industrial estate.
PT Krakatau Steel also has big steel project in Cilegon worth US$6 billion built in joint venture with South Korea`s steel giant Posco.
(Uu.AS/H-ASG/F001)
Editor: Priyambodo RH
Copyright © ANTARA 2012
