RI, Myanmar firms to build cement plant in Myanmar

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian cement producer PT Semen Cibinong and the Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings Ltd. are teaming up to build and operate a US$210 million cement plant in Myanmar.

Semen Cibinong vice president Masri Saridam said yesterday the two companies signed an agreement on Dec. 10 to form a joint venture to build the plant.

He said the joint venture would be 30 percent owned by Myanmar Cement Company Ltd. and 70 percent by Semen Cibinong.

Masri said the joint venture would need around $210 million to build the plant. Around 65 percent of this would come from loans and 35 percent from equity.

He said that construction of the plant, to be built at the Tilawa industrial estate, would begin in mid-1997 and be completed in 2000.

The plant is expected to produce 2.5 tons of cement a year to be sold in Myanmar.

Myanmar produced 500,000 tons of cement annually and imported 1.5 million tons from China and Thailand, he said.

The price of cement in Myanmar is between $75 and $80 a ton.

Masri said the Myanmar Cement Company would also build a clinker plant in Pyadong, Myanmar, to produce up to 960,000 tons of clinkers and 300,000 tons of cement a year.

Construction of this plant is expected to be undertaken by PT Tirtamas Onoda Engineering Company, a subsidiary of Tirtamas group, owned by Hashim S. Djojohadikusumo.

Masri said Semen Cibinong was building a cement plant at its site in Narogong, West Java, to raise its total capacity to 5.6 million tons of cement a year from three million tons at present.

It also planned to boost the annual capacity of its Nusantara cement plant in Cilacap, Central Java, to 2.6 million tons of cement next year from 1.5 million tons now.

With the expansion, Masri said, the total annual capacity of plants belonging to Semen Cibinong would reach 9.5 million tons of cement from next year.

The company plans to build another cement plant in Tuban, East Java, with a capacity of 2.6 million tons a year. It is scheduled for completion by 2001. (jsk)