Production of Semen Gresik increases by 10 per cent

Production of Semen Gresik increases by 10 per cent
30 October 2006


Cement production of PT Semen Gresik Tbk during the first nine months of the year has increased by 10 per cent from that during the same period of 2005, while the national cement production has declined by 5.6 per cent.

The Production Director of Semen Gresik Chabib Bahari said the sales of Semen Gresik were not affected by the lower cement demand in the domestic market.

"The domestic cement market did not harm the production of Semen Gresik," Chatib told Bisnis Indonesia presently.

The sales volume of Semen Gresik during the first nine months of the year has increased to 5.9Mt from 5.8Mt on the same period of last year.

The sales of Semen Gresik Group -including Semen Padang and Semen Tonasa- have increased by 2.78 per cent to 11.1Mt from 10.8Mt last year.

"Our production did not decline like what happened to the national cement industry," he said without providing any detail on the company’s production.

He just said that the production volume of Semen Gresik is now 8.2 Mt, while the production volume of the group is 17.2Mta.

He said that the unsold cement are reserved and will be sold when the demand is increasing later. By reserving the product, it is not necessary for the company to halt or to reduce the production.

He said that the national production volume on May has increased by 2.6 per cent from that on the previous month. The production remains increasing on the following months.

In the meantime the data of Indonesian Cement Association (ASI) shows that the national cement production has declined by 5.6% to 24.27 million tons during the first nine months of the year, from 25.7 million tons on the same period of 2005.

The national cement consumption has declined by 2.4 per cent to 23.55 Mt from 24.13Mt in 2005.

Previously, the vice president of PT Semen Gresik Rudiantara said the company is planning to buy a regional cement company using internal cash reserve to finance 30 per cent of the acquisition.
Published under Cement News