Malaysian integrated primary steel producer Perwaja Holdings Berhad, a subsidiary of Malaysian steel producer Kinsteel Berhad, could boost the local steel industry with its project to build an iron ore concentration and pelletizing plant in Kemaman, Terengganu, according to Malaysian media sources.
One benefit of the new plant for the industry would be the reduced dependency on imported iron ore pellets, said a senior industry analyst. Meanwhile, on Saturday Perwaja's chairman Tan Sri Abu Sahid Mohamed had said that the company's new plant would need two million mt of raw iron ore per year to operate at a maximum capacity to produce 1.2 million mt of iron ore pellets when the first phase is completed and commissioned in August or September next year.
Perwaja plans to increase the new plant's pellet production to 2.4 million mt per year and the iron ore requirement to four million mt when the second phase is completed in 2013.
Perwaja also recently announced that it had put in an application to the state government to mine for iron ore, the basic material used to make primary steel, in Bukit Besi, which is about 80 km from its proposed plant in Terengganu. The Terengganu state government replied that it would cooperate with the company to carry out the mining work in the region. Bukit Besi has an estimated 50 million mt of raw iron ore deposits, and this could be translated into at least 12 years of supply based on Perwaja's full capacity requirement of four million mt of raw iron ore annually for its plant.