Tonasa to increase cement supply

PALU, Central Sulawesi (Antara): The state-owned cement plant PT Semen Tonasa in Ujungpandang, South Sulawesi, has set a production target of 3,240,000 tons of cement this year, its marketing manager Wahab Candoko said here on Saturday.

He said PT Semen Tonasa supplied 2,200,000 tons of cement to customers in 1996. The figures increased by 50 percent compared with those in the previous year.

The targeted production this year is intended to meet the demand for cement in Indonesia's eastern and western regions besides for export.

With the production target, PT Tonasa guaranteed that the demand for cement in the country would be met, particularly in the eastern region.

"We guarantee that the supply would go on smoothly and the delivery to distributors would be on time," he said.

Candoko said that his company's production was also aimed at meeting the demand from a number of neighboring countries.

Until April this year, the company has shipped 50,000 tons of cement for export to Singapore and Malaysia.

Next June, the company will export its cement to Brunei Darussalam, he said without elaborating the figures.

He said the exports to the three states were carried out only in the first semester of this year, namely in the January-June period.

This is because the demand at home during the period is low, only about 40 percent, he said.

In the second semester of the June-December period, the domestic demand is expected to increase to between 50 to 75 percent, Candoko said.