Jaya Fibrindo to set up $10m cooling tower plant in W. Java

JAKARTA (JP): PT Jaya Fibrindo Karsa Pratama (JFKP) and PT Tasan Megah signed an agreement here yesterday with Marley Cooling Tower Company of the U.S. to set up a joint venture company PT Jaya Marley Indonesia which will build a US$10 million cooling tower factory in Cikarang, West Java, this year.

JFKP is a fiberglass company and is a subsidiary of PT Pembangunan Jaya.

The president of Pembangunan Jaya, Ciputra told a news conference that the building of the high-tech cooling tower plant is aimed at reducing cooling tower imports from America, Japan and Europe.

Cooling towers are additions to factories that need to condense steam or other high temperature substances in the course of production.

Ciputra said Indonesia will need many cooling towers as there are now many geothermal power plants being built in Indonesia. He added that a cooling tower is also an important equipment for pulp and paper, chemical, petrochemical, plastic and textile factories.

According to Ciputra, the joint venture agreement was signed following the success of JFKP in producing cooling towers with the same quality as the American product at a lower cost.

JFKP's president, Herawati Santosa, said the company has sold its product to a mining company in Australia, a power station in the Philippines, and a local pulp and paper company.

The plant construction near Cikarang Industrial Estate will be completed in about six months.

Production

Herawati said that half of the plant's production will be sold in the domestic market while another half will be exported, especially to the Asia-Pacific region.

She added that the plant's cooling towers will be produced 90 percent local goods and services.

Jaya Marley Indonesia is 40 percent owned by JFKP, 40 percent by Marley Cooling Tower Company and 20 percent by Tasan Megah.

Meanwhile, after the news conference, Ciputra announced that 12 subsidiary companies of PT Pembangunan Jaya will sell shares in the stock market within the next six years.

He said each company will sell between 15 and 30 percent of its shares to raise between Rp 2 trillion to Rp 3 trillion for business expansion.

PT Jaya Real Property, a property developer and another subsidiary of Pembangunan Jaya, is scheduled to offer 35 million shares, 14.9 percent of their holdings, to the public this month.

Pembangunan Jaya is 40 percent owned by Jakarta city administration, while the other 60 percent is owned by businessmen including Ciputra and Hasjim Ning.(03)