Corporate News in Brief

SEMEN TONASA TO START CONSTRUCTION OF NEW FACTORY TO COST US$318 MILLION. PT Semen Tonasa, a subsidiary of state cement maker PT Semen Gresik will start construction this year of the new plant with a capacity of 2.5 million tons of cement annually . The project, its fourth unit, will cost around US$318 million. Semen Tonasa is expected to be able to turn out 5.9 million tons of cement a year when its new production facility comes on line by the end of 2011 PT Semen Tonasa already has three factories in operation in the regency of Pangkep, South Sulawesi. . Last year , the company produced an estimated 3.6 million tons of cement , up from 3.2 million tons in the previous year. Work is already in progress to build the new factory . Meanwhile, PT Semen Padang, another subsidiary of Semen Gresik in West Sumatra also plans construction of its fourth unit called Indarung IV with a capacity of 2.3 million tons a year . Construction of the project, however, may be delayed over problem in environmental issue .

BAKRIE SUMATERA REPORTS RP2.9 TRILLION IN INCOME . PT Bakrie Sumatera Plantations Tbk recorded Rp2.9 trillion in income in 2009 from the sales of crude palm oil and rubber. The company plans to set aside US$10 million in capital spending this year only for routine work of asset maintenance. The finance director of the company Harry M. Nadhir said the company recorded improvement in financial performance in 2008 r compared with the previous year thanks mainly yo high prices of its commodities in the forst and second quarter of that year. . In the first three quarter of 2008, the company recorded Rp2.39 trillion in income and Rp451.54 billion in net profit or an increase of 115.3% from the same period in the previous year. Harry , however, predicted a sharp decline in performance this year with the falling prices of its commodities . The subsidiary of the Bakrie Group plans expansion of plantations over 100,000 hectares of lands its has . It hopes to use up to 50,000 hectares of the land to grow oil palm and rubber trees.

BUKIT ASAM TO INVEST US$20 MLN IN POWER GENERATING PROJECT. State coal mining company PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam will invest US$20 million in it's a power generating project in Lampung . The power plant will have a capacity of 16 megawatt . Bukit Asam already has planned to build a 30-MW power plant in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra. The company builds the power plants to guarantee power supply for its own consumption. The Tanjung Enim plant will cost around US$41.4 million to be built by a consortium of China Overseas and PT Welter Energi Nusantara . The power plant is expected to be operational in 2011. The company more than doubled its net profit to Rp1.7 trillion last year from Rp726.21 billion in the previous year . Eko Budhiwijayanto, the company secretary, said Bukit Asam recorded Rp7.21 trillion in income in 2008 or an increase of 75% from the previous year largely on higher price.. Sales on the domestic market rose 77% in value to Rp4.24 trillion and exports surged 72% to Rp2.97 trillion, Eko said.

KIDECO POSTS 141.47% IN NET PROFIT. The net profit of the country's third largest coal producer PT Kideco Jaya Agung shot up 141.46% year-on-year to US$229.4 million in 2008 on strong sales performance. The company sold 21.7 million tons of coal. The subsidiary of PT Indika Energy recorded US$1.08 billion in income or an increase of 54.11% in the same period, Rotina Rosabai, the vice president of Indika Energy said. Around 87.1% or US$200 million of the profit will be distributed as dividend and Indika will have a share of 46%, Rotina said Kideco, which has a proven reserve of 416 million tons of coal, plans to produce 30 million tons this year up from 22 million tons last year . Kideco is the largest contributor to the profit of Indika Energy. Last year it accounted for r 68.% of the total net profit Indika Energi. Other shareholders of Kidoco nclude Samtan Co.Ltd ( 49%) and PT Muji Inti Utama (5%) . It has a 30-year mining concession until 2023.

PHILIPS LIGHTING TO BUILD ENERGY SAVING LAMP FACTORY. PT Philips Lighting Indonesia plans to build a factory to produce energy saving lamps in Surabaya, East Java with an investment of US$10 million. The factory will have a capacity to produce 12 million units of energy saving lamps . The subsidiary of the Dutch company Royal Philips Electronics already have an electric lamp factory in Surabaya producing bulbs . The new factory will produce small size energy saving lamps. Earlier Chairman of the association of electric lamp industry John Manoppo said the country's consumption of energy saving lamps is predicted to reach 160 million units this year , up from 120 million units last year. The country's production of energy saving lamp is estimated to reach 20million units in the first quarter of this year , or up 40% from 12 million in the same period last year. The surge in production followed a decline in imports as a result of the restriction imposed by the trade ministry on the imports of certain commodities including energy saving lamps. The country's production of energy saving lamps will not be enough to meet the domestic consumption but the restriction has helped increase the capacity utilization of the producers, John said.

ANTAM-KRAKATAU STEEL TO INVEST $63.5 MLN IN STEEL PROJECT. Two state companies will invest Rp700 billion (US$63.5 million) in an iron ore project in the area of Batulicin in the regency of Tanah Bumbu in South Kalimantan. Mining company PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) and steel maker PT Krakatau Steel have established a joint venture company PT Meratus Jaya Iron & Steekl to run the iron steel processing plant . Krakatau Steel has a 66% stake in the project and Aneka Tambang has the remaining 34%. The plant with a capacity 315,000 tons of sponge iron a year is expected to be operational in 2011, Antam President Alwin Syah Loebis said. Krakatau Engineering, a subsidiary of Krakatau Steel, has been named contractor to build the project, Alwin said. Work is already in progress in the project . He said the regional administration will be involved in the project . Antam will set aside Rp3 trillion in capital appending this year up from Rp2.5 trillion last year .