Soeharto dedicates industrial complex
JAKARTA (JP): President Soeharto dedicated Indonesia's first heavy industrial complex yesterday owned by the country's leading conglomerate, the Texmaco Group.
Soeharto said the heavy industrial complex, in Subang, West Java, was a milestone in the country's economic development as it would reduce Indonesia's longtime dependency on imported heavy machinery to support its industries.
He said when he started the country's 25-year long-term development in the beginning of his tenure, he planned for Indonesia to develop a strong heavy industrial base in order to anchor higher economic development.
"That's why I'm happy now. Because all the strategic plans I made 27 years ago have all been realized today," he said.
Soeharto called on Texmaco to not only sell its heavy industrial products on the domestic market, but also abroad to "help other developing countries".
The President believed that Texmaco products would be able to compete on the international market due to the country's cheap labor and the availability of domestic raw materials.
Soeharto, noting that heavy industries require high-skilled workers, praised Texmaco for its training institute to instruct its workers.
"I am happy that Texmaco plans to train its human resources to manufacture and maintain the machinery it produces. It would be bad if we made them but could not manage and maintain them," the President said.
The 700-hectare heavy industrial complex, owned by Texmaco subsidiary the Perkasa Heavyndo Engineer company, is capable of manufacturing and assembling various capital goods and automotive equipment.
It also boasts a modern training center, the Subang Institute of Technology.
"Strengthening our engineering industry is a critical step in developing Indonesia's industrial base and making us competitive in the world market," noted Sinivasan, chairman of the Texmaco Group.
The integrated production facility at Subang will not only provide stocks to Perkasa's different engineering units, but also will serve other domestic engineering plants and other Southeast Asian countries.
The development of the engineering base will reduce Indonesia's dependence on imported capital goods and engineering products worth US$10 billion a year -- saving precious foreign exchange, broadening the export base of industrial goods and improving the capability of Indonesian engineering firms to undertake large international contracts.
The complex consists of a steel foundry with an annual capacity of 10,000 tons, an alloy steel melting facility with a capacity of 180,000 tons, an open die forging unit with a capacity of 38,000 tons and a closed die forging unit with a capacity of 30,000 tons.
"These facilities will meet our needs for alloy steel and forgings and castings which are essential for the engineering industry," Sinivasan added.
The new facilities will supplement Perkasa's iron foundry in Semarang, Central Java, which has a 50,000-ton annual capacity and its machine tools center in Karawang near Subang.
Sinivasan said the Perkasa heavy engineering division was now capable of conducting large projects on a turnkey basis in the cement, steel, sugar, pulp and paper, power and petrochemical industries.
During the ceremony, Perkasa and the state-owned electricity company (PLN) signed a memorandum of understanding on the production of boilers, super heaters, economizers, water walls, box columns and various other equipment for power generation plants. (jsk/vin)