Antam shortlists three new bidders to compete with Mitsui to develop new facility
Wednesday, May 17 2000 - 04:00 AM WIB
The publicly listed state-owned gold and nickel mining company PT Aneka Tambang has named three new bidders to compete with Japanese Mitsui & Co. Ltd. to develop the delayed Ferronickel III (FeNi III) plant project.
Antam president Deddy Aditya Sumanagara was quoted by the Republika daily as saying that the company had reopened a tender for the development of the project early this month and had shortlisted three new bidders including Germany's Ferrostall AG and TESSAG INA Grup, and Canada's SNC Lavalin Inc.
But Deddy said that Mitsui, which had submitted its bid, was the preferred bidder.
Mitsui had earlier won the first tender, but the development of the project was delayed following the country's economic and political crisis. The financiers of the project also demanded a government guarantee.
Deddy said that a consortium of financing institutions had agreed to finance the project even without any government political guarantee.
Deddy said that the development of the project was expected to start by the end of this year if all of the tender process progressed well.
The project will have a capacity of 13,000 tons of nickel per year. The location of the project is in Southeast Sulawesi.
Meanwhile, Antam reported on Tuesday that its unaudited first quarter net profit increased to Rp 97.52 billion (US$=Rp 8,540) compared to Rp 36.39 billion in the same period last year.
First quarter net sales rose to Rp 301.77 billion, more than twice the figure in the same quarter last year.
The company attributed the surge in net sales to a rise in the sales volume of nickel, gold and silver by 165 percent, 197 percent, and 582 percent, respectively.
The company also said that nickel price increased to US$3.90 per pound in the first quarter of the year from $1.9 per pound in the same period last year.
Antam's nickel sales volume during the first quarter rose to 2,194 metric tons, gold sales rose to 941 kilograms, while silver increased to 8,077 kilograms.
Meanwhile, nickel output rose to 2,406 metric tons during the first quarter, gold output increased to 1,135 kilograms, and silver to 7,543 kilograms.(*)