Thursday, December 26, 2013

INDONESIA: Bosowa Breaks Ground at New Project in Barru Amid Ongoing Expansion

Makassar-based conglomerate Bosowa Corporation on Thursday held a ground-breaking ceremony for a Rp 700-billion ($57.4-million) project to build a cement packing plant and some supporting facilities in Barru, South Sulawesi, the company said in a statement.

The ceremony was attended by Hatta Rajasa, coordinating minister for the economy, Bosowa founder Aksa Mahmud and chief executive Erwin Aksa.

Senior government officials for Barru and South Sulawesi were also present at the proceedings.

Erwin said the project would include a cement packing plant, a port and jetty as well as silos and warehouses.

“These facilities will serve as a hub to avoid queuing for ships that load or unload cement as well as producing clinker for exports. The clinker we produce will also distributed to milling plants in Bosowa and other islands in Indonesia,” said Erwin, Aksa’s eldest son.

The facilities in Barru — situated 107 kilometers from Makassar and 60 km from Maros, where Bosowa operates an integrated cement plant — there will be able to store up to 20,000 tons of cement and clinker, a raw material in cement making.

There will also be warehouses to store additives in for the cement making process such as gypsum and iron ore. The storage will also be able to accommodate coal.

Bosowa — whose businesses now cover 10 different sectors including automotive, cement, energy, property, logistics, infrastructure and finance — has aggressively boosted the scale of its cement business, its main revenue contributor.

On Saturday, it celebrated the commissioning of the second cement mill in Maros, which added 1.8 million tons per year to the group’s cement production capacity.

Bosowa owns Semen Bosowa Maros, which can now produce up to 4 million tons of cement from its two mills and an integrated cement facility, also in Maros.

Also on Saturday, Bosowa celebrated the commissioning of a plant to boost clinker production at its Maros facilities to 7,200 tons per day from 5,500.

The conglomerate spent Rp 1.1 trillion to boost cement and clinker production capacities in Maros.

Bosowa owns another cement-making unit, Semen Bosowa Indonesia, which operates a cement plant in Batam, Riau Islands Province.

Combined, Bosowa can now produce up to 5.3 million tons of cement per year.

Bosowa is currently building cement plants in other parts of Indonesia, including in Banyuwangi on the eastern tip of Java, and Cilegon in Banten.

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