Bridgestone enters Kalimantan

Bridgestone enters Kalimantan

TOKYO (Dow Jones): Bridgestone Corp., Japan's largest tiremaker, said Friday it bought and began production at a natural rubber plantation in Indonesia earlier this month.

PT Bridgestone Kalimantan Plantation, which covers 6,000 hectares in the province of South Kalimantan near the city of Banjarmasin, will have the capacity to produce about 9,000 tons of rubber annually, Bridgestone said in a statement. Eventually Bridgestone plans to have 1.3 million rubber trees on the site.

Bridgestone will invest a total of US$14.4 million in the plantation by the end of 2000, the company said. It has a 90 percent stake in the plantation, while PT Mahkota Bumi owns the remaining 10 percent.