State-owned agroindustry firm PT Rajawali Nusantara Indonesia (RNI) is planning to develop three bioenergy plants worth US$58 million to produce bioethanol and electricity by 2009.
RNI's director for business development, Son Ramadir, said Wednesday that one of the plants would be constructed at the company's Jatitujuh sugar factory in Cirebon, West Java, and would produce 100 kiloliters of bioethanol per day. The cost of the development would be US$20 million, and it would be undertaken in cooperation with private-sector firm PT Indo Acidatama.
"The project, which is now at the feasibility-study stage, will be completed by December 2008," he said.
Another bioethanol plant, with a capacity of 100 kiloliters per day, would be built at the company's Kebon Grati Agung sugar factory in East Java in cooperation with PT Choi Biofuel Indonesia, which is owned by a South Korean firm.
Rajawali is now in the process of selecting a consultant for the $20 million project, which is slated to start operations in April 2009, Son explained.
The third plant, Son said, would be constructed at a cost of $18 million at the Jatitujuh sugar factory, and process the factory's sugarcane waste for the generation of electricity. It would have a capacity of 20 megawatts.
"This project, in which RNI is collaborating with PT PSA Automatika of Russia, is now at the pre-feasibility study stage, with the study expected to be completed in June 2008," he said.
Beside the bioenergy projects, the company also plans to increase the processing capacity of two sugar factories in Malang, East Java, expand its rubber plantations in South Sumatra, and construct a new sugar factory in Garut, West Java.
The two sugar factories' processing capacity will be increased from 8,000 tons of sugar per day to 11,500 tons, and the project will entail an investment of Rp 205 billion (US$22.5 million)
The expansion of the South Sumatra rubber plantations from 1,000 hectares to 16,000 hectares will require an investment of Rp 400 billion, while the new sugar factory and its associated sugarcane fields in Garut will be developed on a 12,000-hectare site, and will cost some Rp 1.2 trillion.
RNI has 54,600 hectares under sugarcane and 11 sugar factories with a total production capacity of 235,000 tons of sugar and 140,000 tons of molasses per annum.
In 2006, the company made Rp 149 billion in net profit, a figure that is forecast to increase by 40 percent this year. (05)
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