Cable venture set up

JAKARTA (JP): An Australian company, Pacific Dunlop, announced yesterday that it has established a A$30-million (US$22.27- million) joint venture with a number of Indonesian partners to manufacture communication cables at the Balaraja industrial center in West Java.

Pacific Dunlop said in a statement made available here that the venture, named PT Olex Indonesia Ltd., will be 60 percent controlled by Pacific Dunlop and the remaining 40 percent by Indonesian businessmen who are engaged in the cable industry.

It said that Olex Indonesia, which operates a sales office here, will soon construct a new plant at the Balaraja center, some 35 kilometers west of Jakarta.

"We expect the new plant will commence production of metallic telecommunication cables by 1995," the statement quoted Philip Brass, Pacific Dunlop's managing director, as saying.

The planned plant is also designed to manufacture optical fiber cables and medium-voltage power cables. (fhp)