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)