Exports set for a decline: Associations

Exports set for a decline: Associations

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian exports will likely weaken even
further in the aftermath of Tuesday's attack on the United
States, Indonesia's biggest export market, dropping between 10
percent to 20 percent this year, exporters said.

Head of the Indonesian Electronics Producers Association
(Gabel) Lee Kang Hyun said on Friday that the attack on the
United States would cause electronic exports to be even more
sluggish than they had already been.

"This year we've had enough trouble with the global economic
slowdown, but the effect of this attack could be very vast.
Export orders are likely to drop or, worse still, we could even
get cancellations," he told The Jakarta Post.

Lee said that he would have to wait at least a month to
calculate just how much damage the attacks would cost local
electronics exporters, but that he expected total exports to the
United States to drop between 20 percent to 30 percent this year.

Electronics exports brought approximately US$6 billion to the
country last year, of which about $2 billion was from the United
States, he said.

Lee said that the association had expected exports to reach a
total of $8 billion this year, but "after seeing what happened, I
am sure that this figure could not be reached."

Indonesia's 2001 export target is set at $65 billion, compared
to $62 billion reached last.

Head of the Indonesian Textile Association (API) Lili
Asjudiredja told the Post that he expected exports to drop
between 10 percent to 20 percent this year from a total of $8.2
billion in 2000.

He said that the biggest worry for textile exporters at the
moment was the possibility of delays in the shipment of goods to
the United States, a country that absorbs 26 percent of
Indonesia's textile exports.

"So far this month we have only covered 60 percent of our
United States exports and we're worried about a delay in
shipment," Lili said.

There would be a disruption in the imports of raw materials
for textiles such as cotton from the United States, because the
documents for the trade had been destroyed along with the World
Trade Center (WTC) in New York where they were kept, he said.

Anton J. Supit, chairman of the Indonesian Footwear
Association (Aprisindo), said that he had not been able to
calculate the possible losses incurred to Indonesian footwear
exports by Tuesday's attack, refuting reports that the
association could lose $150 million in export potential.

Anton said that the losses would depend on how the United
States fared after the attacks and on how far the impact of the
attacks would affect the world's largest economy.

He said that a decrease in footwear exports was imminent but
that it would only be temporary. This year Anton expected a drop
of about 10 percent in exports, compared to $1.7 billion in 2000.

Indonesia exports about 30 percent of its footwear to the
United States.

Secretary-general of the Indonesian Cacao Exporters
Association (Askindo), Zulhefi Sikumbang, said that he was not
overly concerned about exports to the U.S. despite the fact that
Tuesday's incident had also hit New York's cacao terminal market.

"The terminal market, obliterated along with the WTC,
determined the price for cacao in the U.S. So now there is no
market there, but we will shift to the London cacao terminal
market," he said.

The U.S. absorbs about 60 percent of the 120,000 tons of cacao
Indonesia exports annually.(tnt/11)