India's state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Indonesia's PT Krakatau Steel are moving forward with a landmark $350 million joint investment to establish a new stainless steel slab manufacturing facility in Indonesia, marking a significant step in bilateral industrial cooperation between the two nations. According to The Economic Times, the planned plant will have an annual production capacity of 500,000 tonnes and is expected to become operational within three to four years. Under the arrangement, SAIL intends to consume the entire output of the new facility at its Salem stainless steel plant in India, with finished products primarily targeting Indian customers alongside a portion earmarked for export markets.
The project builds on a memorandum of understanding signed earlier between the two state-owned steelmakers to explore a joint venture for stainless steel slab production. Reports indicate that discussions had initially envisioned a larger facility of up to one million tonnes of annual capacity, reflecting the scale of India's ambitions to secure upstream stainless steel supply chains. Indonesia's strategic appeal for this venture lies in its abundant nickel reserves, a critical raw material in stainless steel production.
By leveraging Indonesian nickel resources and SAIL's extensive steelmaking expertise, the partnership aims to reduce India's dependence on imported stainless steel slabs while strengthening industrial value chains between the two countries. The SAIL-Krakatau Steel initiative comes against a broader backdrop of intensifying India-Indonesia economic and diplomatic engagement. Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently announced the planned integration of India's Unified Payments Interface with Indonesia's payment system, while the two nations also concluded agreements in defence, health, education, and technology, including a long-discussed BrahMos missile deal.
Separately, India's Competition Commission dismissed a complaint against Jindal Stainless, one of India's leading private stainless steel producers, over its procurement arrangements with Indonesian suppliers. The regulator found no evidence that the company's dealership programme restricted competitor access to inputs, clearing Jindal Stainless of alleged antitrust violations related to exclusive sourcing deals. The stainless steel sector in India is experiencing broader pricing pressures, with inflation for stainless steel utensils reaching 7.1 percent year-on-year as of June 2026, according to data cited by The Economic Times.
Prices for pressure cookers rose 4.7 percent over the same period, while other metal utensils saw a 4.8 percent increase, driven by climbing global metal costs. Analysts cited in the report suggest stainless steel prices may stabilise through the third quarter of 2026. Among other developments tracked by The Economic Times, Shyam Metalics and Energy has outlined plans to substantially grow its stainless steel revenue following capacity expansion expected to be completed by 2028, as part of a broader strategy to more than double total company revenue by 2031.
The company has allocated a capital expenditure programme of Rs 10,000 crore to support this expansion. The SAIL-Krakatau Steel stainless steel plant, if executed on schedule, would represent one of the most significant cross-border investments in the Asian stainless steel industry in recent years, directly addressing India's structural deficit in upstream stainless steel slab production.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com