Award recipients encouraged to boost exports
JAKARTA (JP): The Primaniyarta award recipients said yesterday the awards would encourage them to improve further their export performance.
President of the pulp and paper industry PT Inti Indorayon Utama, Polar Yanto Tanoto, said the company would further expand its overseas market in anticipation of competition in the upcoming free trade era.
"Pulp and paper exports are still prospective in the future. Currently prices of both products show an increasing trend on the international market," Polar told The Jakarta Post yesterday.
Indorayon was among a number of companies which received the Primaniyarta export awards from President Soeharto yesterday.
The publicly listed Indorayon, based in Medan, North Sumatra, produces 220,000 tons of pulp and 60,000 rayon fibers each year. It exports 70 percent of its pulp to Southeast Asian countries and China and 30 percent of its products to India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Another award recipient, polyester producer PT Indorama Synthetics, expects its earnings from polyester exports will increase to US$200 million this year, which would account for 50 percent of the country's total polyester products.
Indorama's corporate secretary V.S. Baldwa said that the company's polyester exports accounted for 35 percent of the country's exports of these products last year.
The Texmaco Group won for the fourth consecutive year the award for the most impressive performance in the garment division for exporting more than US$100 million worth of apparel last year.
PT Busana Perkasa Garments, an arm of the Texmaco garment division, repeated its impressive growth last year by further diversifying its product lines and significantly expanding its customer base overseas.
"We have been successful in convincing internationally recognized brand names to use Indonesia as a source," said president of the Texmaco garment division, M. Manimaren, after receiving the award yesterday.
Texmaco Garments' product lines include men's shirts, ladies' dresses, blazers, suits, skirts, shorts and pants, active wear, jackets and knitted garments.
Texmaco Garments, with an annual production capacity of 12 million pieces, supplies high-quality brand names in the United States such as Liz Claiborne, Nike, Jones Apparel, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, Van Heusen, Levy Strauss, Wernaco-Chaps, Talbots, Eddi Buer, Espirit and Kelwood-Halmode.
"In Europe, we supply Marks & Spencer, Sidensticker, Nike, Carli Gry and Next. And we have set up a garment factory in Semarang, Central Java, fully dedicated to Marks & Spencer," Manimaren added.
He said his group had also diversified into knitwear by setting up a plant in Bogor, West Java, to produce knitted garments exclusive to Nike.
"Our vision is to become a global manufacturing company in the apparel business so that we can supply our buyers from different countries," he said.
Manimaren said that quality and deadlines for delivery are keys to accessing the world's best-known brand names.
"But we have a very strong competitive advantage as Texmaco is fully integrated. We are able to source the majority of our fabrics from our own plants. Hence, we are able to fully control our garment quality and delivery schedules," he said.
The Texmaco Group of 25 companies operating in chemicals, textiles, garments, engineering and financial services last year booked $1 billion in revenues.
Two of its subsidiaries -- PT Polysindo Eka Perkasa and PT Texmaco Perkasa Engineering -- which are listed on the Jakarta and Surabaya Stock Exchanges, obtained earlier this month a tax holiday facility from the government. (jsk/prb)