T

he government will issue a revision of the regulation on importation of non-hazardous and non-toxic waste, aiming to tighten scrutiny of imported waste following the confiscation of thousands of containers of scrap metal at several local ports over the past months.

The revisions would require overseas surveyors to conduct joint operational cooperation with local surveyors to generate qualified and credible verification reports, the Trade Ministry’s foreign trade director general Deddy Saleh said on Friday.

“At present, overseas surveyors are appointed by importers. Despite the surveyors’ assessments, we still find hazardous and toxic waste entering our country,” he told reporters during a press conference at his office.

The revised rules would also improve the mechanism of waste checks, with involvement of local surveyors in the process along with custom officials upon the entry of the waste into local ports, Deddy further said.

Under the prevailing rule, waste containers are checked by local officials randomly without participation of local surveyors.

The planned rule is set to replace the Trade Ministry regulation on non-hazardous and non-toxic waste importation issued in 2009.

A stricter rule is considered necessary following an inspection in January by custom officials at Tanjung Priok port, North Jakarta, who found that 113 imported metal scrap containers were contaminated with hazardous and toxic waste. The containers, of which 89 came from Britain and the rest from the Netherlands, were ordered by PT HHS which planned to recycle the scrap for further processing by the local steel industry.

Scrap metal is one of the main materials needed by the domestic steel industry as it still uses older technology.

Following the finding, custom authorities have detained more than 7,000 containers at three other ports — Tanjung Belawan in Medan, Tanjung Emas in Semarang and Tanjung Perak in Surabaya — in addition to Tanjung Priok port.

Out of the 7,000 containers, which originated from Senegal, Mauritius and the Netherlands, only around 1,124 containers were checked and had undergone physical examination as of June. The first 113 containers were recently sent back to their exporting countries, according to the Environment Ministry.

As the larger part of the detained containers contained scrap metal, the local steel industry have faced a shortage of raw materials in recent months.

Industrial players said the short supply was the cause of a slowdown in industrial growth. Basic metal and iron industry grew by 5.57 percent in the first quarter of this year, down from 17.56 percent during the same period a year ago, according to the Industry Ministry.

Amid the protests of industrial players, the government has recently committed to speeding up the release of the containers as soon as possible.

Indonesian Iron and Steel Industry Association (IISIA) executive director Edward Pinem said the lengthy detainment caused the reduction of steel plants’ utilization by 50 percent. During the recent months, a number of firms have chosen to import billets or slabs as the price of scrap has doubled to US$800 per ton amidst scarcity.

“Otherwise, there will be a significant jump in imports of finished steel products,” he said.

Pinem said local business would not immediately import scrap before a certain regulation was issued.

However, the Trade Ministy said that it recently issued new licences for the importation of scrap while a joint cooperation between local surveyors, such as Sucofindo and Surveyor Indonesia, and overseas partners were initiated.