Sumitomo to bid for RI plant tender

Sumitomo to bid for RI plant tender

JAKARTA: Sumitomo Corp., Itochu Corp. and Marubeni Corp. are among the bidders for a contract to build a coal-fired power plant in West Java province for Indonesia's state electricity company, PT Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN).

Some 36 companies including the three Japanese ones, India's Essar Group, South Korea's Samsung Corp. and Germany's Siemens AG, have registered to bid on the 600-megawatt power plant in Cirebon, Ali Herman Ibrahim, Perusahaan Listrik's director of generation said in an interview today.

"They're joining the pre-qualification stage of the tender, in which we select companies that qualify for the final stage," Ibrahim said. "We hope to shortlist the bidders and start the bidding process before the end of this year so we can meet the target to get the plant up and running by 2011."

Indonesia, struggling to avoid power shortages, is planning to invite bids this year to build eight power plants with a combined capacity of 3,670 megawatts.

The country needs to spend about $27 billion on new plants and power lines by 2012 to meet demand, according to the World Bank. -- AP