Semen Gresik to operate two new plants

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 commence operations within one year.

Executive director Dwi Soetjipto said Friday evening that the plants will hopefully increase the company’s cement production by 18 percent to 23 million tons, from its current levels of 19.5 million tons.

“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 media gathering.

Construction of the two plants began in 2009 with a US$594 million investment: $304 million 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 percent of our production capacity of 19.5 million tons per year,” 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 2.5 million tons per year, increasing the company’s annual cement production capacity to 24.5 million tons.

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 $114 million, will produce 70 megawatts of electricity. Dwi added that Semen Gresik aims to construct a further two plants next year to increase its production capacity to 30 million tons 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.

Semen Gresik currently operates 11 production plants in three provinces across the archipelago, including four plants in Indarung, West Sumatra, under the management of PT Semen Padang; three in Tuban and Gresik, East Java, under PT Semen Gresik; and four in Pangkep, South Sulawesi, under PT Semen Tonasa.

Semen Padang and Semen Tonasa are subsidiaries of Semen Gresik.

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. (mim)