New joint venture formed to build cement plant
New joint venture formed to build cement plant
JAKARTA (JP): Korea Development Co. Ltd. (Kodeco), Marubeni
Corp. of Japan and Indonesia's Indocement Group set up a joint
venture company yesterday to develop and operate a US$488 million
cement plant, with an annual capacity of 2.45 million tons in
Batulicin, South Kalimantan.
The joint venture company is 46 percent owned by PT Indocement
Investama, a unit of the Indocement group, five percent by
several other Indonesian shareholders, 46 percent by Kodeco and
three percent by Marubeni.
The plant, to be built by Marubeni, is slated to come on
stream in 1998.
An executive of the company said yesterday that $146.4 million
of the total investment would be financed with equity capital and
the remaining $341.6 million funded by loans.
The project, he said, is supported by 1,000 hectares of
limestone deposits, 100 hectares of clay and 1,000 hectares of
iron sand, all located near Batulicin.
He said that the plant's production cost would be one of the
lowest in Indonesia due to its proximity to raw materials and
energy (coal).
He said the plant also will use its own specially-designed
bulk carriers and seaport.
The plant is one of 21 projects licensed by the government to
expand the country's cement manufacturing capacity. Most of the
other projects are still in various stages of preparations for
implementation.
Indonesia still partly relies on cement imports because the
industry has not been able to catch up with the high growth in
demand.
The new plant will further strengthen Indocement's position in
the industry because the group already accounts for more than 40
percent of the national capacity.
However, both Marubeni and Kodeco are newcomers to the cement
industry.
Kodeco, the first South Korean investor in Indonesia, began
investing in Indonesia in forest-based ventures, such as logging
and sawn timber in the late 1960s. But it has diversified into
plywood, the hydrocarbon sector, electronics, container boxes and
rubber plantations. (vin)