Bottled water will cost more next month

Bottled water will cost more next month

JAKARTA (JP): Producers of bottled water announced yesterday that they will raise the prices of their products next month due to scarcity of packaging materials.

"The shortage of supply has raised the prices of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin, the raw material for the production of plastic packaging, thereby forcing us to raise the prices of our products by around 10 to 20 percent next month," Willy Sidharta, an executive of the Association of Indonesian Producers of Packaged Drink Water (Aspadin), told journalists yesterday.

Willy, concurrently president of the listed PT Aqua Golden Mississippi, maker of Aqua water, said that packaging accounts for about 65 percent of average production costs.

"Right now the price of PET resin has increased to US$2,000 per ton from $1,200 last year," he said, adding that Indonesian packaged water producers import about 1,000 tons of the petrochemical compound every month from Japan and South Korea.

The extend of the price increase will vary depending on the size of the packaging and the particular brand, he explained.

Aspadin, however, has set reference prices. A box of 48 cups (containing 220 milliliters each), for example, will have a factory price of around Rp 5,500 next month, marking a 10 percent increase from Rp 5,000 at present.

"Consumers and the government should be cautious if producers charge lower prices than our references," said Aspadin's chairman, Sukardi.

Statistics from Aspadin, which groups 51 producers, state that Indonesia produced about 2.06 billion liters of packaged water last year, out of which 85.9 percent was consumed domestically.

Willy also explained that the shortage of PET resin on the world market is caused by an unexpected growth in demand, particularly by the textile and food packaging industries.(hdj)