Company plans $2.8b smelter facility

China's Tsingshan Group plans to invest $2.8 billion to set up a high-capacity ferro-nickel smelter plant in Indonesia by mid-2017, with the aim of producing 2 million tons of stainless steel per year.

The plant's projected annual capacity will be equivalent to 40 percent of the capacity in Europe and 5 percent of the world's, says Huang Weifeng, vice-chairman of the board at Tsingshan.

More Chinese companies may open smelting plants in the archipelago now that it has imposed export restrictions to force mining companies to develop local smelting and processing facilities.