Siemens plans to invest 200 million marks

JAKARTA (JP): Germany's widely-diversified business group Siemens AG will invest 200 million marks (US$59.8 million) by the end of the century for its expansion in Indonesia, the company said yesterday.

The head of Siemens' Indonesian office, Kurt W. Pfeiffer, said the company would spend the money to strengthen its production facilities throughout the country, especially in the electronic, telecommunications and information technology sectors.

The expansion plan would include the establishment of PT Siemens Precision Electronics in Batam next year, Pfeiffer said in a press conference to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the company.

Siemens, which first entered Indonesia in 1894, currently operates several companies in the country which are mostly active in engineering and manufacturing.

The companies include PT Siemens Kabel Optik, an optic fiber cable manufacturer based in Cilegon, West Java, which is 51 percent owned by Siemens and 49 percent owned by the Ometraco Group; PT Siemens Component, a wholly-owned electronics manufacturer in Batam; and PT Osram, a lightbulb producer based in Jakarta, which is 95 percent owned by Siemens.

Siemens is also developing a 1,220 Megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Paiton, East Java in a joint venture with Britain's PowerGen Plc, and PT Bumipertiwi Tatapradipta of the Bimantara group.

Siemens has a 50 percent stake in the power project, while PowerGen and Bumpertiwi retain a 35 percent and 15 percent stake respectively.

Siemens has also set up a joint venture, PT Siemens Indonesia, in which the company has a 93.5 percent stake and its partner, the state-owned armament manufacturer PT Pindad, a 6.5 percent stake.

PT Siemens Indonesia operates a manufacturing plant in Pulo Mas, East Jakarta, which produces equipment for power transmission and distribution, and another plant in Cilegon, West Java, which produces gas and steam turbines.

Pfeiffer also said Siemens would set up a joint venture with the state-owned telecommunication equipment producer PT Inti and electronics producer PT Lembaga Elektronika Nasional (LEN) to produce telecommunications equipment next year.

Siemens would have a 65 percent stake in the company, while the remaining 35 percent would be shared between PT Inti and PT LEN.

Pfeiffer said Siemens booked an annual sales of one billion marks in Indonesia in the last fiscal year ending on Sept. 30. The company also booked 1.5 billion marks in new orders in the same period.

He said the telecommunications and power generation sectors contributed 40 percent each to Siemens's sales in Indonesia but the last fiscal year saw a strong increase in the orders for the company's telecommunications equipment.

Of the 1.5 billion marks in new orders booked in the last fiscal year, one billion marks came from the telecommunications sector, 50 percent of which originated from the mobile telecommunications sector, he said. (jsk)