Semen Gresik expects sales to increase

Semen Gresik expects sales to increase

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed cement producer PT Semen Gresik
estimates total cement sales will increase to 12 million tons
this year from 10.28 million tons in 1998.

Company president Urip Timuryono said on Friday that five
million tons of total sales would go to export markets.

The company said total sales increased by 33 percent to 8.39
million tons in the January to August period.

"We are certain that with rising demand from export markets we
can operate on a 70 percent capacity," Urip said on Friday after
the company's extraordinary shareholders meeting.

Semen Gresik, which has a total production capacity of 17.3
million tons a year, booked total sales of 8.4 million tons
during the January to August period, a surge of 33 percent from
the same period last year on the back of higher exports.

During the period, the company exported about three million
tons, rising significantly from 813,000 tons in the same period
last year.

Domestic sales reached 5.4 million tons in the eight month
period, down 1.4 percent from 5.5 million tons in the same period
in 1998.

Urip said that Semen Gresik's cement was sold at an average of
US$24 per ton in overseas markets.

Semen Gresik's export markets are Australia, Singapore, Papua
New Guinea, Maldives, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Vietnam, Sri Lanka,
Yemen, South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt, Chile, Dubai and Mauritius.

At the press briefing, Urip denied media reports that the
government planned a further sale of its stake in Semen Gresik to
its existing strategic investor Cemex S.A. de C.V. of Mexico.

"There is no such plan as of now," he said adding that Cemex
still owned a 25 percent stake in Semen Gresik.

Last year, Cemex bought a 14 percent stake in Semen Gresik
from the government and another 6 percent from the public through
a tender offer. The Mexican cement producer bought another 5
percent this year in order to have a seat on Semen Gresik's board
of directors and commissioners.

The current shareholding position of Semen Gresik is the
government (51 percent), Cemex (25 percent) and the public (24
percent), according to Urip.

Semen Gresik, which wholly owns PT Semen Padang in West
Sumatra and PT Semen Tonasa in South Sulawesi, is the first of
the state-owned firms to be sold to strategic investors since the
government's privatization program began last year.

Shareholders of Semen Gresik also appointed Setiadi Dirgo as
the company's president commissioner, replacing Anwar Nasution
who is currently appointed as the senior deputy governor of Bank
Indonesia.

Setiadi was a retired government official who previously had
served as Semen Gresik's president director and simultaneously as
chairman of the board of commissioners of PT Semen Cibinong from
1981 to 1988. (udi)