Polyester producers to increase capacity

Polyester producers to increase capacity

JAKARTA (JP): PT Indorama Synthetics has assigned five foreign
companies to provide technical assistance and plant equipment for
its expansion projects which will make it the largest polyester
producer in Indonesia.

Under the agreements signed here on Friday, Du Pont of the
United States, Chemtex of the United States, Toyobo of Japan,
Nissho Iwai of Japan and Barmag of Germany are required to expand
Indorama's polyester production capacity from 180 tons per day at
present to 420 tons per day by December 1995.

Indorama's president, Vinod Laroya, told reporters that the
expansion project will cost US$135 million, which will partly
financed by the International Finance Corporation, an affiliate
of the World Bank, and loans from a syndication of foreign banks.

Indorama's finance manager, Arvind Parakh, said his company
plans to further increase its polyester production capacity by
another 240 tons per day by 1997, bringing its total capacity to
660 tons per day.

He added that the expansion of the polyester plant is part of
the company's expansion and diversification projects worth $279
million.

The other projects include the expansion of the company's
spinning plant, which will cost $10 million, and its weaving
plant, that will cost $20 million, he said.

The company will also expand the capacity of its PET resin
plant with an investment of $43 million by next year.

Parakh said the expansion and diversification projects will
increase the company's total annual sales and profits to Rp 760
billion ($351.5 million) and Rp 100 billion, respectively.

The company's net profit is estimated to increase from Rp 50
billion last year to Rp 60 billion this year, he said.

Korean firm

Meanwhile, PT Sunkyong Keris Indonesia, a South Korean-
Indonesian joint venture, said here Friday that it will double
the daily production capacity of its polyester plant in
Tangerang, West Java, from 90 tons to 180 tons with an investment
of $75 million.

A spokesman for Sunkyong Keris, a company jointly owned by the
Sunkyong Group of South Korea and the Batik Keris Group of
Indonesia, said that construction of the expansion unit will
start in November and be completed by December 1995.

The capacity expansion is expected to increase the company's
sales revenues by $70 million per annum, he said.

The spokesman said the company's sales reached $100 million
last year.

He said Sunkyong Keris will also invest $38 million for the
construction of a polyester resin plant with a production
capacity of 200 tons per day.

"We will start constructing the polyester resin plant next
January," he said, adding that the construction is scheduled to
be completed by December 1995.

The operation of the polyester resin plan will likely
contribute about $75 million in sales revenues per annum, he
said.

Sunkyong Keris exports part of its products to the United
States and a number of European and Southeast Asian countries.
(05/rid)