ITSS Tungku Explodes Again, Minister Of Energy And Mineral Resources Opens Voice

Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Arifin Tasrif. (Photo: Maria Trisnawati/VOI)

JAKARTA - Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin Tasrif opened his voice regarding the explosion at the ferronickel smelter PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel (ITSS) on Thursday, June 13.

Just so you know, in this incident two workers became victims of the explosion. This incident is also not the first time this has happened on ITSS. Previously in December 2023, the same explosion also occurred and claimed lives.

Arifin said that his party will also review the cause of the explosion of the ferronickel furnace of PT ITSS located in the Morowali Industrial Park (IMIP) Industry, Morowali Regency, Central Sulawesi.

"That's why we want to see, we want to review what caused it," Arifin told the media crew quoted on Saturday, June 15.

Arifin said that actually the authority to impose sanctions belongs to the Ministry of Industry because the permit owned by ITSS is an Industrial Business License issued by the Ministry of Industry.

With a review by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Arifin said, his party will provide input that will be used in the future in the management of smelters.

"(Sanctions) should be in the Industry (Ministry). We just give advice for factory security," continued Arifin.

On a separate occasion, IMIP Morowali's Indistribution, Pertambamgan and Energy Labor Union (SBIPE) highlighted the explosion of the ferronickel smelter stove at PT Indonesia Tsingshan Stainless Steel (ITSS) which was repeated.

Chairman of SBIPE IMIP Morowali Henry said that the recurrence of the explosion of the smelter stove showed that there was no significant improvement made by PT ITSS to prevent work accidents and protection of workers so that the same accident was repeated in the same part and place.

"Therefore, it is very important to conduct a thorough audit through an independent team involving labor unions, as we conveyed during the ITSS tragedy last December 2023," he said.