The Gunawan Steel Group was an Indonesian steel group founded 1989, which owned several Steel works in Southeast Asia. The group's companies were taken over by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (''Badan Penyehatan perbankan Nasional'', BPPN) in 1998 following financial problems as a result of the

1997 Asian financial crisis The 1997 Asian financial crisis gripped much of East Asia, East and Southeast Asia during the late 1990s. The crisis began in Thailand in July 1997 before spreading to several other countries with a ripple effect, raising fears of a worldwide eco ...

. As of 2012 the subsidiary ''Gunawan Dianjaya Steel'' remains in business, the plate mill of ''Gunawan Iron and Steel'' was acquired by

Lion Group Lion Group Malaysia is headed by chairman and chief executive officer William Cheng. Cheng's grandfather founded Lion as a small trading company in Singapore after leaving China in the 1920s. It became Malaysia's biggest steel manufacturer after ...

and operates as ''Lion Plant Mill Sdn Bhd'',

History and description

The group consisted of three steel industry companies; Gunawan Dian Steel Pipe (GDSP) based in

Surabaya Surabaya is the capital city of East Java Provinces of Indonesia, province and the List of Indonesian cities by population, second-largest city in Indonesia, after Jakarta. Located on the northeastern corner of Java island, on the Madura Strai ...

, Indonesia; Gunawan Iron and Steel (GIS) based in

Kuala Terengganu Kuala Terengganu (; Terengganu Malay language, Terengganu Malay: ''Kole Tranung''), colloquially referred to as KT, is the administrative, economic and royal List of capitals in Malaysia, city of the state of Terengganu, Malaysia. Kuala Tereng ...

, Malaysia and Gunawan Dianjaya Steel (GDS) (Surabaya, Indonesia). GDSP produced electric resistance welded steel pipe and had a capacity of 300,000 tonnes per year (2008 figure). GDS had a production capacity of 400,000 tonnes of plate per year. GIS's steel plant was created in the late 1990s through the re-assembly of equipment acquired from steel works in Europe; a $760 million development plan included equipment acquired from the closed

Ravenscraig steelworks The Ravenscraig steelworks, operated by David Colville & Sons, Colvilles and from 1967 by British Steel Corporation, consisted of an integrated iron and steel works and a hot strip steel, strip steel mill. They were located in Motherwell, North ...

in Scotland, Blast furnace capacity was acquired from

Koninklijke Hoogovens Koninklijke Hoogovens known as Koninklijke Nederlandse Hoogovens en Staalfabrieken (KNHS) until 1996 or informally Hoogovens. is a Dutch steel producer founded in 1918. Since 2010, the plant is named Tata Steel IJmuiden. The steelworks based i ...

by dismantling and shipping a disused blast furnace, a LD-converter was acquired from

Voest Alpine Voestalpine AG – stylized as voestalpine – is an Austrian steel-based technology and capital goods group based in Linz, Austria. The company is active in steel, automotive, railway systems, profilform and tool steel industries. As of 201 ...

. The company had a capacity of 250,000 tonnes of plate per year; the Terengganu state had a 30% stake in the company. After the

the groups companies had debts of 1.45 trillion

Indonesian rupiah The rupiah (Currency symbol, symbol: Rp; ISO 4217, currency code: IDR) is the official currency of Indonesia, issued and controlled by Bank Indonesia. Its name is derived from the Sanskrit word for silver, (). Sometimes, Indonesians also inform ...

and were taken over by the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (''Badan Penyehatan perbankan Nasional'', BPPN). The assets of GIS and GDSP were later acquired by '' Bina Kreasi Primaniagatama'' at a much lower value than their capital worth. In 2004 it was alleged that the sale of the groups steel companies was corrupt and had cost the (Indonesian) state 1.2 Trillion - it was claimed that the companies that reacquired the assets were part of the Gunawan group - a transaction that violated governmental asset sale regulations. The GIS plate mill became part of the

and production was restarted in 2003. Gunawan Dianjaya Steel (GDS) was owned by the Gunawan family in 2008, and launched an IPO in 2009, raising $16.8million for 12.2% of the company.

References

{{reflist 1989 establishments in Indonesia 1998 disestablishments in Indonesia Steel companies of Indonesia Steel companies of Malaysia