Corporate News in Brief

RMI TO BUILD WASTE PROCESSING PLANT. PT Resources Jaya Teknik Management Indonesia (RMI) will carry out its plan to build a factory to process CO2 waste into pure CO2 this year. The project to be built in Cilegon, Banten will cost around US$31.8 million. The factory will utilize gas waste from the steel factory of PT Krakatau Steel (KS) to be processed in to pure CO2 and the waste will be used to supplementary material for food procesisng and electronic industries. The new factory to be built by PT RMI will be the first and only facility in the country utilizing factory gas waste to produce pure CO2. Meanwhile, RMI asa holding company has established PT RMI Krakatau Karbonindo as the operator of the factory . PT RMI has established cooperation with the state and ciontry's largest steel maker TP Krakatau Steel to guarantee supply of the gas waste . A memorandum of understanding wll soon be signed . Many orders for pure CO2 have been received especially from beverage processing companies like Cocacola. Molindo and Iwatani Industries (a Japanese company) a car body assembler. Pure CO2 is needed by various industries including food and beverage, welding, sea fish preservative, fumigation and secondary oil recovery industries.

ASTRA HONDA MOTOR BUILDS WHEEL RIM FACTORY. PT Astra Honda Motor (AHM) has invested US$30 million in a wheel rim factory with an annual production capacity of 250,000 sets of racing wheel rims. Vice President of PT AHM, Johannes Loman said the factory is expected to be able to meet lcoal requirement on the domestic market. So far AHM has to buy wheel rims from suppliers like Enkei. However, demand for racing wheel rims for motorcycles has continued to increase faster than demand for ordinary wheen rims. Based on sales data, the models of Honda motrocycles using racing wheel rims have increased significantly in number. In 2008, around 60% of motorcycle models use racing weeh rims. Models like Honda Vario and Honda Tiger are now found in the market only ones with racing wheel rims.

BHP BILLITON TO SELL COAL MINE IN C. KALIMANTAN AT US$400 MLN. Australia's mining giant BHP Billiton will sell its stake in Maruwai coal mine in Central Kalimantan at US$400 million. The divestment plan is in process with a number of local investors keen on taking over the asset, PT LahayCoal, Billiton's subsidiary said. PT Indika Energy, PT Bumi Resources and PT Medco E&P have shown serious interest in acquiring the stake, Infra Diananjaya, the president of Lahai Coal, said. Japanese construction service company PT Itochu Indonesia also wants to buy the assets, Indra said. Earlier BHP Billiton was reported as saying it may cancel all coal investment plans in Indonesia as the projects are considered no longer strategic for long term. The company already scrapped plan to develop the Haju block, which is part of the Maruwai project under PT Lahai Coal, Indra was quoted as saying

BANK OF CHINA TO FINANCE PLN'S ELECTRICITY PROJECTS. A loan fund of US$1.06 billion have been made available by China for state power utility company PLN to finance construction of three coal-fired power plants Bank of China (BoC) will provide US$455 million and China Eximbank (Cexim) US$605 million based on the loan disbursement agreement signed in Bali recently. The fund from BoC will be used for PLTU Teluk Naga project and the loan from Cexim is for PLTU Pelabuhan Ratu and PLTU Aceh, which are part of PLN's crash program to build coal-fired power plants with a total capacity of 10,000 megawatts. The loans will be repayable in 13 to 15 years with interest rate based on the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), PLN Vice President Rudiantara said. Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the funds needed by the three power projects are fully met with the loans from China. PLN already received rupiah funds from local financers for the three projects

PERTAMINA WINS TENDER TO ACQUIRE ONWJ BLOCK. State oil and gas company PT Pertamina finally was declared winner of a tender to acquire 46% stake worth S$280 million in Offshore North West Java Block (ONWJ) block from Beyond Petroleum West Java Ltd PT Pertamina will wholly take over the role of BP in the block both as a shareholder and as the operator, Pertamina President Karen Agustiawan said after the signing of the sales and purchase agreement here recently. Karen said the stake in ONWJ will increase Pertamina's daily production by 12,000 barrels of crude oil and 100 million cubic feet of gas per day . She said the acquisition is part of the company's move to strengthening its upstream business especially in offshore operation. Pertamina is eyeing not only the asset but also seeking to improve its skill in handling upstream sector of the industry

INDONESIA HEAVY TO EXPAND BUSINESS TO MINING AND ENERGY SECTORS. PT Indonesia Heavy Equipment and PT Ejra Energy will set aside Rp6 trillion to finance expansion to the gold mining and energy sectors. It also handles project of land reclamation along the beach area of Tanjung Priok and Pluit, North Jakarta , but the company is keen on expanding operation to the oil and gas and gold mining ventures. According to the director of PT Indonesia Heavy Equipment and PT Ejra Energy Edy Joenardi, the companies will acquire PT Babat Kukui Energi, which operates an oil field in the Sekayu area in South Sumatra. Meanwhile, PT Ejra Energy sets oil production target at 2,000 barrels per day from Sekayu oil field as already produced by PT Babat Kukui Energi. The company needs only to continue gold production already exploited by PT Mas Muryati Abadi from the gold mine in Purwakarta, West Java.