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)