Semen Gresik April cement sales fall

Semen Gresik April cement sales fall

JAKARTA:Indonesia's cement maker PT Semen Gresik Thursday said its total cement sales fell 20 percent to 992,388 metric tons in April from 1.233 million tons in April last year.

Gresik, Indonesia's largest cement maker, said the fall was due to a decline in domestic sales and export volumes.

Semen Gresik's domestic cement sales in April fell 7 percent to 849,788 tons from 914,054 tons last year.

Exports declined 55 percent to 142,600 tons from 318,842 tons.

According to data from the National Cement Association, countrywide cement output in April fell 5.1 percent to 2.023 million tons from 2.131 million tons in April last year.

Semen Gresik is 51 percent owned by the government and 25.53 percent owned by Mexico's Cemex SA de CV (CX).

Tuesday, Gresik said shareholders will vote in December whether to spin off its unit Semen Padang, which contributed 36 percent to Gresik's total cement sales in April.--Dow Jones

PLN agrees price cuts

JAKARTA: PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN), Indonesia's state utility company, reached agreement on price cuts or buyouts with 26 independent power producers, Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Purnomo Yusgiantoro said.

"By reaching agreements with 26 producers, we are able to show the market that we can settle our dispute and that private producers can operate in this country," Purnomo told reporters after a cabinet meeting.

The utility has been trying to renegotiate power purchase agreements amounting to US$133 billion over 30 years with 27 independent producers, mostly backed by overseas investors, after the Indonesian rupiah's collapse during the Asian financial crisis in 1998 forced PLN to sell electricity to consumers at a loss. -- Bloomberg

APP to meet export credit agencies

JAKARTA: Asia Pulp & Paper Co. will meet key creditors tomorrow to discuss their proposal for protection from a second debt default, the head of the Indonesian Bank Restructuring Agency (IBRA) said.

The meeting was delayed on Wednesday as the export credit agencies owed the bulk of the outstanding debt of more than US$13 billion hammered out details of their proposal, IBRA chief Syafruddin Temenggung told reporters on the sidelines of an investor forum.

The creditors include Japan's Nippon Export & Investment Insurance and export credit agencies from the U.S. and Germany.

Asia Pulp has been negotiating a debt recast with lenders after a default 27 months ago, the success of which is key to restoring investor confidence in Indonesia. IBRA, which is owed $1 billion, is mediating in the debt talks between the company and overseas lenders. -- Bloomberg

Toshiba, Samsung to make washing machines

TOKYO: Japan's Toshiba has tied up with rival Samsung Electronics in the washing machine business while Mitsubishi Electric is quadrupling purchases from the South Korean firm, officials said Thursday.

"As we expand our product line-up, it is impossible to manufacture all of them by ourselves," a Toshiba Corp. spokesman said.

Samsung Electronics Co. is supplying the Japanese technology giant with small washing machines under the Toshiba brand, marking the firm's first procurement from South Korea in the "white goods" home appliance division.

Toshiba aims to sell 10,000 of the washing machine in Japan in the first year, the spokesman said.

Mitsubishi Electric Corp. said it would increase the range of washing machines it buys from Samsung, boosting total procurement to 120,000 units in the year to March 2004.

The number is about four times as high as the year-before, a spokesman said.

Profit margins were slim for smaller washing machines if they are produced in Japan, he noted, adding that the outsourcing would also enable Mitsubishi to reduce development costs. -- AFP

DaimlerChrysler drops planned plant

DETROIT: DaimlerChrysler has abandoned plans to build a US$1 billion plant in Windsor, Ontario, that would have created 2,500 jobs, the automaker said on Thursday.

DaimlerChrysler cited poor economic conditions in the automotive market, including low demand and sales in the United States.

"The state of the automotive market has created a formidable hurdle, especially for a small entry-level vehicle such as the one we were considering" for Windsor, said DaimlerChrysler Group president Dieter Zetsche.

The company still plans to invest about $1 billion in its Brampton, Ontario, assembly plant, near Toronto.

The automaker said it was not dissatisfied with efforts that the Canadian and Ontario governments and the Canadian Auto Workers union had made to come up with incentives for the project.

"The decision is based on economics," spokeswoman Debra Nelson said Thursday. -- AP

Hutchison Whampoa to launch 3G

HONG KONG: Hutchison Whampoa will launch its third generation (3G) mobile telephone service in Hong Kong next month, tycoon Li Ka-shing said on Thursday.

The chairman of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate -- which has already launched 3G in Italy, Britain, Australia, Austria and Sweden -- said he was "very optimistic" about the company's 3G services and that he believes they will "achieve break-even very soon".

Hutchison managing director Canning Fok added that the company would also be aiming to increase its number of subscribers in Italy by another 10,000 by the end of next month after reaching 90,000 recently.

The 3G technology allows users to gain high-speed Internet access, send and receive e-mails, see video images of people they are talking to, take photographs with their handsets and play electronic games.

Li said that he believed that by the end of 2006, the company's 3G operations in Europe would be even healthier than that of Orange when it was sold to Mannesmann in 1999.--AFP