Palm oil firm operates

JAKARTA (JP): PT Daya Labuhan Indah, a palm oil plantation firm based in Labuhan Batu of North Sumatra, inaugurated last week its plant, which is capable of processing 30 tons of palm oil fruit per hour.

Company director Azaria Yoga Prawiro said over the weekend that the new plant was built with an investment of Rp 12 billion (US$5.4 million), Antara reported.

Aside from processing palm oil from the company's plantations, the new plant also processes fruit from other plantations, including those belonging to the government and farmers.

The plant applies an energy-conversion technology and operates a boiler which can reach a maximum temperature of 320 degrees Celsius before the oil palm is made into crude palm oil.

Azaria said that the technology can save up to Rp 500 million of production costs per year, as compared to the conventional method, which uses a boiler with a maximum temperature of 260 degrees Celsius.

The Labuhan Batu regency currently produces half of North Sumatra's crude palm oil production of two million tons per annum.(pwn)