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Sinar Mas to produce 1.8 million masks per month to meet rising demand
Sinar Mas Group’s managing director Gandi Sulistiyanto said the company would use a factory owned by APP subsidiary PT The Univenus, which is located in Cikupa in Tangerang, Banten, to produce the masks.
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A woman helps an older man to put on a mask while waiting for a train at Manggarai Station, South Jakarta, on April 5. The government has instructed people to wear masks when using public transportation. (JP/P.J. Leo)
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aper producer Asia Pulp and Paper (APP), a subsidiary of diversified conglomerate Sinar Mas Group, is planning to locally produce masks through one of its subsidiary’s factories in Banten to help combat the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
APP will produce 1.8 million masks per month starting from late April after it procures mask-manufacturing machines from China, the company’s director Suhendra Wiriadinata said in a written statement on March 30, as quoted by Tempo.
“We expect that mask production will begin in the third or fourth week of April. We are also simultaneously working on the production licensing with relevant agencies and ministries” he said.
Sinar Mas Group’s managing director Gandi Sulistiyanto previously said the company would use a factory owned by APP subsidiary PT The Univenus, which is located in Cikupa in Tangerang, Banten, to produce the masks. He added that the masks would be primarily distributed for paramedics.
[RA::Indonesian manufacturers step up as G20 nations coordinate global medical supply/news/2020/03/27/indonesian-manufacturers-step-up-as-g20-nations-coordinate-global-medical-supply.html]
To help flatten the COVID-19 curve, the government is now urging people to wear face masks whenever they are out in public. The new recommendation is an update from the previous guidelines and is in line with the World Health Organization’s latest recommendation.
"The President has asked us to make guidelines on face masks in accordance with the World Health Organization's advice,” head of Indonesia’s COVID-19 rapid-response task force, Doni Monardo, told an online press conference on Monday.
Sinar Mas previously donated 10,000 masks alongside the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (Kadin) donation of Rp 300 billion (US$18.3 million) to the government on March 24. The majority of the masks were produced by a Sinar Mas factory in China.
Besides APP, textile factories in Indonesia are also switching their production lines to produce personal protective equipment (PPE) for medical personnel, including mass-producing masks and protective coveralls as the country scrambles to fight the spread of COVID-19.
The Health Ministry announced 218 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Monday, bringing the total number of infections nationwide to 2,491. Speaking at a press conference on Monday, the ministry’s disease control and prevention director general, Achmad Yurianto, added that 11 more people had died of the disease, bringing the death toll to 209.
