Five cement producers win export licenses
Five cement producers win export licenses
JAKARTA (JP): The government has licensed five local cement
producers to export in the first quarter of this year, a Ministry
of Trade official says.
The director general of metal, machinery and chemical
industries, Effendi Sudarsono, said Wednesday that they were
allowed to export because there would be an oversupply of about
two million tons of cement this year.
The five cement producers are PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa,
PT Semen Cibinong, both in West Java, PT Semen Andalas Indonesia
in Aceh and North Sumatra, PT Semen Padang in West Sumatra and PT
Semen Tonasa in South Sulawesi.
Effendi said the export licenses could be revoked immediately
if there was a domestic cement shortage.
"The domestic market remains a top priority. The five firms
must import if there is a domestic shortage," he said, adding
that the five companies were only allowed to export around
215,000 tons between January and March.
Director of Non-Metal Mineral Industries Agra Kusuma projected
earlier that domestic demand for cement would grow 13 percent to
28.8 million tons for 1997 from 25.5 million tons for 1996.
Because the domestic cement supply would reach 30.9 million
tons this year, Indonesia would have an oversupply of two million
tons, he said.
Agra said the two million-ton oversupply would result from
three big extensions to existing plants in Java which would add
an installed capacity of 6.2 million tons a year.
The plants were operated by PT Semen Nusantara with an annual
installed capacity of 2.6 million tons, state-owned PT Semen
Gresik with 2.3 million tons and Indocement with 1.3 million
tons, he said.
On the export licenses, the chairman of Indonesian Cement
Association, Soepardjo, asked the government to be consistent in
its policy on cement exports.
"Please don't cancel the licenses all of a sudden, because
that could damage our credibility overseas," he said.
He said earlier that the country's cement producers were
sometimes considered unreliable by foreign buyers because they
often cut off supply abruptly to follow the government's orders
that they must meet domestic demand. (04)