Semen Kupang eyes East Timor market

JAKARTA (JP): State-owned cement company PT Semen Kupang has been ordered to speed up the construction of its second plant in East Nusa Tenggara to be ready for export activities once East Timor becomes independent.

Semen Kupang president H.M. Sattar Taba told the Antara news agency that State Minister of Investment Marzuki Usman requested that he gear the plant, scheduled for completion in March, to meet cement needs in East Timor and East Nusa Tenggara, which share a common border.

"They will need plenty of cement to rebuild East Timor. Semen Kupang must tap this opportunity, especially since the plant is located on the same island," he quoted Marzuki as saying.

Sattar said construction of the Semen Kupang II project in Osmo was 60 percent completed.

The second plant will have annual production capacity of 400,000 tons upon completion. The first unit has a capacity of 270,000 tons annually.

Semen Kupang II was built in anticipation of growing demand in the Asia-Pacific region, especially Australia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and East Timor, Sattar said.

Facing a slump in domestic demand from the slowdown in construction activities, the country's cement producers have turned to the export market in the last two years. The country exported 8.9 million tons of cement in the first half of 1999, according to the Ministry of Industry and Trade.

The government has projected domestic cement demand this year to remain stagnant at the 1998 level of 19.2 million tons, compared to 27.9 million tons in precrisis 1997.

Semen Kupang, which serves markets in East Nusa Tenggara and West Nusa Tenggara, Maluku and Irian Jaya, also exports its products to Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Australia.

"We will still export to the Northern Territory even with the current tension between the two countries." He added that he was yet to see indications Australia would cut its imports. (02)