Latinusa to Launch Quality Tinplate by Revamping

Nippon Steel’s Indonesian tinplate making subsidiary, Latinusa launches high-value added products including tickly coated tinplate in and after late 2011 by revamping of tinning line. The firm plans to increase quality and production capacity to compete with imported material.

Latinusa plans to stop the tinning line in October-November and restart the line in December. The firm’s production capacity increases to annual 160,000 tonnes from 130,000 tonnes. The firm could launch high-value added products output by the revamping, which are not able to be replaced by the imported material.

The firm’s sales decreased by around 12% to 51,000 tonnes in January-June from same period of last year. However, Nippon Steel sees the sales are not low level when Latinusa’s annual sales marked more than 100,000 tonnes twice.

On the other hand, Latinusa’s net income decreased by 94% to around 29 million yen in January-June from same period of last year when the firm could not fully increase the selling price due to price competition with imported material mainly from China. Indonesian tinplate import marked more than 15,000 tonnes per month at the peak compared with 180,000-200,000 tonnes demand in Indonesia.

The import increased when the users, which increased the production capacity by more than 30% last year, needed not pay tariff on the import due to Indonesian investment promoting tax policy. Nippon Steel sees Latinusa could improve its earnings for July-December when the policy ended in July.