Tomen to expand plant

Tomen to expand plant

TOKYO (AFP): Japanese trading house Tomen Corp. announced
yesterday plans for its Indonesian styrene monomer venture to
invest US$150 million on tripling production over the next two
and a half years.

The company said the joint venture, PT Styrindo Mono
Indonesia, would build a new plant with a production capacity of
200,000 tons a year. An existing plant is currently producing
100,000 tons of the raw material for polystyrene resin, used to
make wrapping materials and home appliance parts.

Part of the additional production will be for export to other
Southeast Asian countries and the investment will be partly
funded by a 105 million dollar loan from the Export-Import Bank
of Japan and other Japanese banks.

Tomen holds 75 percent of Styrindo Mono while another Japanese
company Idemitsu Petrochemical Co. Ltd. holds five percent.
Indonesia's Salim and Bimantara groups hold 10 percent each.