31 Jul 2018

Business Visit at Washington DC

On March 8, 2018, the President of the United States of America, Donald Trump, announced the Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 declaring the adjustment on steel and aluminum import duties which came into effect starting from March 23, 2018. As a result, a 25 percent duty on steel products and a 10 percent duty on aluminum products are now being collected on imports from many countries including Indonesia.

Since this issue is threatening Indonesian trade security, BNM Stainless Steel teamed up with the Government of Indonesia on a mission to make Indonesia eligible to get an exemption on the import duties on steel and aluminum. The business visit took place in Washington, D.C., USA on July 23-24, 2018.

The Hearing Session went successful as we were able to gather with the representatives of GSP Product Importers and US Importers of Steel & Aluminum Associations, to sit and speak our concerns regarding what impacts that the import duties have for both parties as well as to find a solution on how to deal with it.

In particular, we reached an agreement that BNM Stainless Steel’s customers do need our products to do business in the USA. The main reason is that US domestic stainless steel buyers are faced with a rather long lead time of production. It is caused by the limitations on production capacity that the US integrated mills have where they mostly focus on doing mass production of big coils of 1219 mm wide, and US re-rollers are now shifting to nickel alloy and titanium. This long lead time will definitely disturb US buyers’ production cycle.

It is safe to say that the demands of precision stainless steel outnumber the supplies. Furthermore, the domestic stainless steel price in the USA is going up which makes the price gap between import and domestic price is getting narrow. The increase of domestic stainless steel price will create an inflation which, at the end of the day, will affect US stainless steel end consumers.

We were also able to meet with more of our customers at the Business Forum & One-on-One Business Matching which led to more business opportunities and stronger business relationship. The MoU signing sealed the commitment of BNM Stainless Steel and our customer in doing business of precision stainless steel in the year of 2018 and forward.

At last, we would like to express our gratitude for the below individuals and teams whose effort and support have made this event happen and our voices heard.

1. Mr. Enggartiasto Lukita – Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia
2. Mr. H.E. Budi Bowoleksono – Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to the Unites States of America
3. Mr. Oke Nurwan, Mrs. Pradnyawati & Team – Directorate General of Foreign Trade
4. Mrs. Arlinda & Team – Directorate General for National Export Development
5. Mr. Iman Pambagyo, Mrs. Ni Made Ayu Marthini – Directorate General of International Trade Negotiation
6. Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia, Washington, D.C.
7. Trade Attaché Washington, D.C.
8. Indonesia Trade Promotion Center Los Angeles
9. Indonesia Trade Promotion Center Chicago

Courtesy of BNM Stainless Steel

- MoU signing between BNM Stainless Steel and BNM’s customer

Top from left to right: 

David Merryl (USINDO President), Robert O. Blake, Jr. (U.S. Co-Chair, USINDO), Enggartiasto Lukita (Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia), Arlinda (Directorate General for National Export Development), H.E. Budi Bowoleksono (Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Indonesia to the United States of America).

Bottom from left to right:

Rizky Rullyanto Sudibyo (BNM Stainless Steel) and BNM’s customer.

From left to right:

Rizky Rullyanto Sudibyo (BNM Stainless Steel), Enggartiasto Lukita (Minister of Trade of the Republic of Indonesia) and BNM’s customer.