2 contractors for ferronickel III project resign
Saturday, July 22 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
SNC Lavalin Inc. of Canada and Ferrostaal that passed the re-tender process for the development of Ferronickel III factory project in Pomalaa, Southeast Sulawesi, have likely withdrawn from the re-tendering competition.
An informed sources said Friday that the two contractors considered the Ferronickel III factory belonging to state-owned general miner PT Aneka Tambang, with annual capacity of 13,000 tons of ferronickel, as unfeasible project.
Indications that they had withdrawn from the tender were so strong, the source said. Representatives from one of the two contractors did not join a recent field trip to Pomalaa.
"They are also pessimistic if they could win the tender as there is Mitsuit & Co. Ltd. of Japan that has also passed the re-tender process," the source said.
There were four contractors joining the re-tender process. The other contractor is Tessa Ina Group of Germany.
Aneka Tambang president Deddy Aditya Sumanagara said earlier that out of the four contractors, Mitsui & Co. Ltd. -- the winner in the 1998 tender that had been canceled due to the economic crisis - remained the preferred bidder for the project.
The other three bidders had been selected from the pre-qualification process that had been participated by nine contractors on engineering, procurement and construction.
Deddy said that the three contractors were then required to submit their offers, covering technical aspects, definitive terms on export credit financing to the tendering team by August 1.
However, the source said that two of the three bidders, Lavalin and Ferrostaal, had resigned from the tendering.
Deddy said that the re-tendering process aimed to net the best offers from world-class bidders, including best offer on financing.
The source said that the funding for the project should be no problem now as he said a state-owned bank had committed to providing up to US$200 million of fund to finance the project.
The funding, the source said, came from a local investor that used to run away from Indonesia. (*)