Published on January 13, 2006

Nippon Steel Corp’s Thai subsidiary, Siam Nippon Steel Pipe Co Ltd, is to establish a unit of its own to manufacture and sell mechanical structural-steel tube in Indonesia.

The new company, which will be called PT Indonesia Nippon Steel Pipe, will have a registered capital of US$8.5 million (Bt335 million) and will be 95 per cent owned by Siam Nippon Steel Pipe. The remaining stake will be held by Toshida Industry.

PT Indonesia Nippon Steel Pipe’s plant will be located at Bukit Indah Industrial Park, about 60 kilometres from Jakarta.

With a production capacity of about 1,200 tonnes per month, the company will focus on supplying mechanical structural-steel tube to automobile and motorcycle manufacturers in Asean and India. It will start manufacturing in two years.

Siam Nippon Steel Pipe president Hitoshi Okubo said yesterday that production of automobiles and motorcycles in the region was increasing steadily. In Thailand and Indonesia, in particular, Japan-based manufacturers of automotive parts are increasing their production capacities and have urged the parent company, Nippon Steel, to boost local production of mechanical structural steel tube.

The new company will use the expertise of its Thai parent to provide a steady supply of high-precision, high-quality steel tube to meet rising demand from Japan-based makers of automotive parts that have already entered the Indonesian market.

Okubo said the Thai and Indonesian companies would jointly build an organisation capable of responding quickly to demand from the rapidly growing automotive industries throughout Southeast Asia and India. Siam Nippon Steel Pipe is 60.8 per cent owned by Nippon Steel.

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