Indonesia’s Semen Gresik to expand cement capacity by 5.3Mt - report news sources in Jakarta. State-owned PT Semen Gresik, the country’s largest cement producer, plans to raise its consolidated annual production capacity by 5.3Mt by 2006 from the current 15.88Mt, to meet the expected 10 per cent annual growth in domestic demand, Investor Daily reported, citing a government official. It quoted Benny Wahyudi, director general for chemical, agriculture and forestry industries in the Ministry of Industry and Trade, as saying that Semen Gresik plans to raise the annual capacity of its three Tuban plants by 500,000 tons each. He said the company’s unit PT Semen Tonasa plans to boost the annual capacity of its Tonasa I plant by 1Mt and its Tonasa V plant by 2.3mt. Another unit PT Semen Padang plans to raise the capacity of its Indarung V by 500,000tpa, he said.
When contacted by XFN-Asia, Semen Gresik’s corporate secretary Subagio said he cannot confirm the reported schedule for expanding output capacity. "The plan is still being studied, it is in its early stages," he said. He said Semen Gresik will fund the expansion partly with loans. Company spokesperson Agung Wiharto said Semen Gresik’s own installed capacity currently amounts to 6.9Mta, while that of Semen Padang stands at 5.5Mta and Semen Tonasa’s at 3.48Mta. He said Semen Gresik’s consolidated cement production amounts to over 90 per cent of its installed capacity of 15.88Mt. The cost of building a new cement plant will be 150-200 usd for each ton of capacity, he added.
