Hanco to reconditions BA's spare parts

Hanco to reconditions BA's spare parts

JAKARTA (JP): State coal mining company PT Tambang Batubara
Bukit Asam signed a memorandum of understanding yesterday with
local company PT Hanco Foundry Industry to recondition spare
parts from its mining facilities.

The memorandum was signed by Bukit Asam's president RA Sunardi
and Hanco's president Krishnadi Soemali with witnesses including
Minister of Mines and Energy I.B. Sudjana, and the ministry's top
officials.

Krishnadi said that under the memorandum, Hanco would
recondition Bukit Asam's scrapped spare parts and sell them back
to the company for 50 percent cheaper than imported parts would
cost.

Bukit Asam, which is based in South Sumatra, is one of the
country's largest coal mining companies with a production of
about 12 million tons per year.

Hanco, which started operation in 1989, produces alloy steel
and high resistance castings for mining, oil and gas, cement,
plantation, forestry and railway industries at its manufacturing
plant in Bandung, West Java.

"Bukit Asam saves a lot of money and we also save a lot of
money to buy cheap raw materials for our products," Krishnadi
said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.

Sudjana praised the memorandum, saying that aside from saving
Bukit Asam a lot of money amid the monetary crisis, the
memorandum would also help develop local manufacturers.

"The cooperation between PT Bukit Asam and Hanco Foundry
Industry is thus a real and bold venture to increase the use of
locally made products instead imported products as well as to
develop local technology," Sudjana said in his speech during the
signing ceremony.

He said Bukit Asam had so far imported most of its spare parts
for its machinery.

But the current economic crisis, which has led to an increase
of between 300 percent and 400 percent in the prices of imported
spare parts, has made it difficult for the company to continue
importing spare parts.

According to Bukit Asam's president, RA Sunardi, the company
imported US$7 million worth of spare parts last year. (jsk)