Chandra Asri seeks partners

Chandra Asri seeks partners

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): Privately held petrochemical company PT Chandra Asri, owner of Indonesia's only naphtha cracker, is considering taking on a strategic partner, a Jakarta-based company spokesman said yesterday.

Indonesian shareholders holding the majority of Chandra Asri's shares are willing to sell some of their holdings to a foreign petrochemical company to help maintain and expand production capacity during the country's current economic crisis, the spokesman said.

Chandra Asri has been running its naphtha cracker in Merak, West Java, at near-capacity levels, offering discounts to struggling Indonesian consumers and exporting material that domestic companies still can't afford.

The spokesman said the cracker has been able to obtain letters of credit for imports of its naphtha feedstock as a result of the financial strength of one of its major shareholders, a consortium of Japanese companies led by Marubeni Corp.

Chandra Asri plans to expand its complex's annual olefins production capacity from the current 520,000 tons ethylene and 280,000 tons propylene by adding one or two new furnaces, the spokesman said.