Buton asphalt for Vietnam

JAKARTA (JP): Facing difficulties in marketing its asphalt domestically, foreign investment firm PT Amerta Margayasa Aspal plans to export its products to a number of neighboring countries.

The company's president, John Huliselan, was quoted yesterday by Antara as saying that the Vietnamese government had expressed interest in importing its micro-asphalt, produced on Buton island, Southeast Sulawesi.

"This is a great success for us in promoting Buton's micro- asphalt abroad," Huliselan said. He added that his company had conducted a series of seminars and demonstrations on the use of micro-asphalt in Vietnam.

He said that other countries interested in importing the micro-asphalt included Singapore, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea and Australia. The company will soon export 500 tons to Australia.

The Australia-affiliated Amerta Margayasa used to produce micro-asphalt, with a total output of 50,000 tons per annum, but managed to sell only 20,000 tons per annum on the domestic market.

Besides micro-asphalt, the company also produced butonite mastic asphalt. However, it has halted production of its butonite mastic asphalt since last year, due to a large stock in inventory. (rid)