Bakrie Pipe wins $36m contract to sell pipes to Caltex

PT Bakrie Pipe Industries, a subsidiary of PT Bakrie and Brothers, has won a contract worth about US$36 million to supply steel pipes to Riau-based oil giant PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI), Bisnis Indonesia reported on Friday.

Under the consignment purchasing agreement, Bakrie Pipe would supply up to 6,000 tons of pipes in three years until 2003 to the oil company. The agreement was signed in Riau recently by CPI managing director R.M. Galbraith and Bakrie Pipes?s president and chief executive officer A.D. Erlangga.

?We hope CPI could extend the term of the contract to four years and buy up to 8,000 tons of pipes,? Erlangga was quoted as saying by the business daily.

According to Erlangga, Bakrie Pipes has increased its pipe production capacity to 8,000 tons in 2000 from about 57,000 tons in 1999. Last year, the company?s production reached a record level of about 110,000 tons.

Erlangga hoped with the signing of the new contract, the company would be able to increase production to 200,000 tons. Besides selling the pipes in the local market, the company also exports its pipes products to other Southeast Asian countries, North Africa, Europe, the United States and the Middle East. (*)