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.