Cement plant in Sumatra

Cement plant in Sumatra

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned PT Semen Padang has started to build its fifth cement production unit in West Sumatra with an investment of Rp 697.6 billion (US$303.3 million).

Director General of Metal, Machinery and Chemical Industries Effendi Sudarsono said after a ground-breaking ceremony in West Sumatra Friday that the new production line, called Indarung-V, will have a production capacity of 2.3 million tons per year and will start production in the first half of 1998.

The excavation area of Indarung-V covers 200 hectares of the thousands of hectares allocated for cement excavation in the region.

With the operation of Indarung-V, Semen Padang will have a total production capacity of 5.5 million tons of cement a year, as compared to the current capacity of 3.2 million tons.

Semen Padang's president, Abubakar, said the investment for Indarung-V will be derived from the firm's equity (Rp 110 billion), domestic bank loans (Rp 333.3 billion) and foreign loans (Rp 254.4 billion). (pwn)