42 firms to make briquet

42 firms to make briquet

JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto has urged the 42 companies
awarded permits to build coal briquet plants to begin their
projects soon, state-owned PT Batu Bara Bukit Asam's president
Sunardi said yesterday

"The President has asked us to speed up the projects to supply
the high demand of alternative energy from small-scale industries
as a substitute to oil," Sunardi said after meeting Soeharto.

The government has set a production target of two million tons
of briquet in 2000, half of which will be produced by PT Batu
Bara.

Sunardi said PT Batu Bara, the country's major coal producer
and the holder of coal mining concessions, would soon build
briquet plants in Serang, West Java, and Cilacap and Semarang,
both in Central Java, in addition to two more plants to be built
on the same property of its Gresik plant in West Java. (das)