Boatmakers face bankruptcy

INDRAMAYU, West Java: No less than 150 boatmakers here will have to stop production due to a lack of teak supply.

A number of craftsmen said they had not been supplied with teak for the last four months.

"If the situation does not change, many of us will go bankrupt," Moch. Surdja, coordinator of the craftsmen, said over the weekend.

The boat industry is concentrated in the villages of Pagirikan and Pasekan, Sindang district.

Surdja said certain suppliers from the neighboring town of Cirebon offered teak at Rp 1 million per cubic meter, Rp 300,000 above the normal price.

"Even if the stock is there, we have to go through a complicated procedure that may take 15 days before we can obtain the wood," Surdja said.

It remains a mystery why teak has been disappearing in Indramayu, Surdja said.

Orders for wooden boats used to come from fishermen in the West Java town of Subang, the Banten towns of Pontang and Lontar, and Muara Angke, Jakarta.

Boatmakers in Cirebon and the Central Java town of Batang have filled the gap in the market left vacant by counterparts in Indramayu, Surdja said. -- JP