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