Antam to announce Fe Ni III winner next week
Friday, November 24 2000 - 09:30 AM WIB
Publicly listed state owned mining company PT Aneka Tambang Tbk said it would announce the winner of the contract for construction of its ferronickel expansion project in Pomalaa, South East Sulawesi, which is popularly called FE Ni III sometimes next week.
The company's president Dedi Aditya Sumanegara told reporters on the sidelines of a seminar in Jakarta today it would choose between two contenders Mitsui Co from Japan and German firm Tessag AG.
However, Dedi did not specify the time frame for the announcement.
The construction of the company's third ferronickel plant has been delayed for several times due to difficulties in obtaining the funding of the project. The first tender which was opened in 1998 did not run as expected and should be delayed.
The tender then opened again in May 2000 but it was again cancelled as the preferred bidder Mitusi and Co pulled out due to its financial difficulties.
The tender for the engineering, procurement and construction of the project was relaunched recently with bidders including Mitsui and Co and Tessag Group of Germany. Several bidders pulled out in the middle of the selection project.
Earlier, Company's corporate secretary Dohar Siregar said Antam expected to be able to start the project early next year.
The construction of the new plant is scheduled for completion in 2003, will be able to increase the company's production capacity to 24,000 tons per year from 11,000 tons at present.
The company operates two plants at present, each with a production capacity of 5,500 tons per year. (godang)