RI copper demand may rise strongly

RI copper demand may rise strongly

SINGAPORE (Reuter): Indonesia's copper consumption is seen rising strongly over the next few years due to robust demand in the construction, power and communication sectors, a leading domestic cable maker said.

Jimmy Chong, director of PT Kabelmetal, said in a paper at a copper conference in Singapore said domestic copper rod consumption grew to 93,865 tons in 1996, up sharply from 29,301 tons in 1991.

"The cable and wire sector consumes the largest portion of copper," he said.

The leading user would be the construction sector, which has benefited from a boom in the property market.

"The average demand for office space over the last three years has increased significantly with the increase in foreign investment in Indonesia," Chong said.

Direct investment over the last three years has surged to 100.7 trillion rupiah in 1996 from 53.3 trillion rupiah in 1994 and this "indicates strong growth from 1998 to 2000."

Another leading consumer of copper would be the power sector, where demand is expect to rise 21,000 megawatts in 1999 from the current 14,970 megawatts.

Telecommunication cables will also be needed to boost the telephone density in Indonesia, which Chong said has the lowest rate in Southeast Asia.

Indonesia has only 4.2 million phone lines for a population of nearly 200 million people. The current plan is to install 8.5 million more lines to boost the telephone density to 8.7 percent.

"The new lines installed will use mainly copper cables," Chong said.