Toba Pulp Lestari moves production plant to China
Toba Pulp Lestari moves production plant to China
Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan
Tired of the long-standing dispute with local people and the
local administration, PT Toba Pulp Lestari has moved its rayon
production plant from North Sumatra to China, an official said on
Tuesday.
Toba Samosir deputy regent M.S. Manurung revealed the firm,
formerly called PT Inti Indorayon Utama, was currently
dismantling the factory's machinery.
"They will ship the machines to China and the (transferring)
process will finish in September," Manurung told The Jakarta Post
at his office.
The company's chief commissioner, Dedy Sutanto, however,
declined to comment on the reported transfer to China. "No
comments," he said.
Manurung dismissed speculation that the local administration
had demanded the rayon factory be relocated, saying the move was
taken upon the factory's own will due to its long-standing
dispute with local people.
"It is their right to move out or take the factory's machinery
apart," he said, while citing that the company had given prior
notice about the relocation of the rayon plant to the local
administration.
A local newspaper, the Waspada daily, quoted the company's
spokesman, Fadmin Malau, in its Monday's edition as saying the
rayon plant was sold to the Chinese government for US$200
million.
Manurung said that it was probably due to the closure of its
rayon factory in 1998 that the company had decided to move its
rayon production to China.
Established in 1986 with startup capital of US$600 million,
Indorayon had been held responsible for the declining water level
of Lake Toba and illegal logging in North Sumatra.
Local people also accused the company of dumping poisonous
waste water directly into Asahan River, polluting the air and
causing lung disease among local people.
The government ordered the closure of the company's rayon
production in 1998 following public complaints.
Bowing further to public pressure to close down the plant,
former president Abdurrahman Wahid ordered the closure of the
whole company in 2000 for environmental reasons.
Dozens of people have been killed in a series of
demonstrations against the company owned by businessman Sukamto
Tanoto of the Radja Garuda Mas Group.
Listed on both the Jakarta and New York stock exchange,
Indorayon exports pulp and paper products to a number of European
countries, Japan and the United States.