Texmaco set to make PTA in Karawang

Texmaco set to make PTA in Karawang

KARAWANG, West Java (JP): Texmaco Group's publicly listed PT
Polysindo Eka Perkasa will start making purified terephthalic
acid (PTA) by the end of April at its plant in Karawang, West
Java.

Texmaco's president M. Sinivasan said Thursday, "President
Soeharto is scheduled to inaugurate the plant on April 25,"

Coordinating Minister for Production and Distribution Hartarto
and State Minister of Research and Technology B.J. Habibie
visited the plant Thursday.

Sinivasan said the plant would produce 360,000 tons of PTA a
year: one third of the country's PTA output.

"With the plant operating, we will no longer need to buy the
chemicals to feed our polymer plant," he said.

He said his company now bought PTA from Bakrie's plant, which
made about 500,000 tons of PTA a year.

He said Polysindo and Texmaco's publicly listed subsidiary
Texmaco Jaya, which produces textile machinery, garments,
synthetic fibers and fabrics, would use all the plant's PTA
output.

"Our polymer plant has been in operation since last September
with a designed capacity of 330,400 tons a year," he said.

The polymer plant feeds Polysindo's polyester staple fiber
factory, which was expanded last September to produce up to
180,000 tons a year.

Sinivasan said a sharp increase in the international cotton
price had prompted local textile producers to substitute
polyester staple fibers for cotton.

Indonesia's annual PTA output of more than one million tons
only meets 56 percent of total domestic demand. The rest is
imported.

Sinivasan said that, over the next five years, the country's
demand for PTA was projected to increase by between 15 percent
and 20 percent a year which meant it would soon be viable to
increase the capacity of Texmaco's PTA plant.

Construction of Texmaco's PTA, Polymer and Polyester staple
fiber plants cost US$575 million. The PTA plant alone cost $275
million, he said.

He said the plants were part of Texmaco's US$2 billion
expansion to be completed by 1998.

The expansion includes plans to set up a truck assembly plant
in Subang, West Java, a rayon fiber plant in Irian Jaya and to
develop partnerships with small companies to produce garments.

Sinivasan said the company's net sales were expected to
increase to about $1 billion by 1998 with a 20 percent profit
margin. (bnt)