Semen Gresik two new plants to start operations within one year
State-owned cement producer PT Semen Gresik, the largest cement company in Indonesia, announced that its two new cement plants – in Tuban, East Java, and in Pangkep, South Sulawesi – will start operations within one year.
Executive director Dwi Soetjipto said Friday evening that the plants will hopefully increase the company’s cement production by 18 per cent to 23Mt, from its current levels of 19.5Mt.
“We expect the construction of the new plant in Tuban to be finished in December and the one in Pangkep in April next year,” Dwi told reporters at a press event.
Construction of the two plants began in 2009 with a US$594m investment: US$304m for the Pangkep plant and the remaining for the Tuban plant.
With both plants in operation soon, Dwi expects the production capacity issues faced by the company over the past few years to be solved.
“In the last two to three years, we have reached 100 per cent of our production capacity of 19.5Mt,” Dwi said.
“The new plants should give us more production room and increase our production capacity,” he said, adding that each of the new plants will have a production capacity of 2.5Mta, increasing the company’s annual cement production capacity to 24.5Mt.
The company’s data shows that it will also complete construction on a power plant in Pangkep next year to support the new cement plant. The plant, for which building began in 2010 with an investment of US$114m, will produce 70MW of electricity.
Dwi added that Semen Gresik aims to construct a further two plants next year to increase its production capacity to 30Mt by 2015.
“We hope to complete these two plants, one in Java and the other in Sumatra, by 2014 so that they can start operating in 2015,” he said.
Dwi also said the company is currently planning to construct a cement plant in Papua to support construction projects in the country’s eastern regions.
Published under Cement News
