Samudra Petrindo Asia sets up joint venture

Samudra Petrindo Asia sets up joint venture

JAKARTA (JP): PT Samudra Petrindo Asia (SPA), a unit of the Bimantara Group, has set up a joint venture company with Torvald Klaveness Shipping of Norway to anticipate a tender for coal shipments from Tarahan on the southern tip of Sumatra island to the Suralaya power plant in West Java.

SPA's president Rudi Tangkawarow said yesterday that the shipment contract for seven million tons of coal per year for the third up to seventh units of the Suralaya coal-fired power plant could be worth as much as US$21 million.

"We are now bidding in the tender for the annual shipment of two million tons per year for the III and IV units of the power plant. The winner will be announced early next year," he said.

He said the joint venture company, Samklav Bulk Carriers, which has a paid-up capital of $1 million, will also bid for the shipment of five million tons of coal per year for the V, VI and VII units of the power plant.

Rudi said Samklav is owned equally by SPA and Torvald Klaveness.

He said Samklav will use carriers with a capacity of no more than 25,000 dead weight tons, the largest capacity that can be handled by the Tarahan coal terminal.

He added that his company is also eying a contract for the shipment of coal to the private coal-fired power stations Paiton I and II units, in East Java and Tanjung Jati B, in Central Java.

SPA currently owns one LNG tanker, which is chartered by state-owned oil company Pertamina to ship liquified natural gas from Pertamina's Arun plant, in Aceh, to Japan.(04)