PT Bakrie Construction, a subsidiary of PT Bakrie & Brothers, is pushing ahead with the planned export of five rail-mounted gantry cranes worth US$8 million to Australia despite a call for a boycott of Indonesia's southern neighbor.
Director Hery Kusmanto said Thursday that the delivery of the gantry cranes would be carried out on schedule.
He said that two of the five cranes would be shipped in the second week of May, while the remaining three cranes would be delivered in July.
"The cranes will be used for the construction of port facilities at Botany Harbor, Australia," he told reporters during a ceremony to mark the completion of the construction of the cranes, which were ordered by an Australian company.
Industry Minister Fahmi Idris and other senior government officials also attended the ceremony, which was held at the company's factory in Merak, Banten.
The export of the cranes indicates that Indonesia's bilateral trade with Australia is proceeding as normal despite a call to cut trade ties with the neighboring country.
The Indonesian Importers Association (Ginsi) and a number of politicians recently urged a boycott of Australian goods and the halting of exports to that country .
The boycott call was made early this month after the Australian government granted temporary visas to 42 Papuan asylum seekers.
Bakrie Construction has exported various kinds of heavy equipment, mostly for use in ports, to Australia, Japan, Korea and Argentina.
In 2003, the company exported six container cranes for a harbor project in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The company produces a number of types of heavy equipment, including rubber-tired gantry cranes, ship unloaders, post-panamax container cranes, and super post-panamax container cranes, which are normally used in power plant and port projects.
Meanwhile, Bakrie & Brothers president Bobby Gafur Umar said that the Australian company's trust in Bakrie cranes was proof that Indonesian products could compete on the international market.
He said that 60 percent of the orders received by Bakrie Construction came from abroad, with the remaining 40 percent coming from local companies.
"We are in the process of supplying cranes to a port project in Bolder Stone, Christmas Island, Australia," he said. (9)
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