China?s Shandong plans $5b smelter in RI
Thursday, October 17 2013 - 01:19 AM WIB
?We?re building a smelter on Bintan Island , Riau province, that will process bauxite into aluminum. Construction began in early October and we expect to finish by October 2016,? Shandong Nanshan Aluminium chairman Song Jianbo told reporters after a meeting with Industry Minister MS Hidayat on Wednesday.
The bauxite to supply the smelter would be collected from various mines in Riau, Jianbo said, adding that the smelter was expected to produce 2.1 million tons of alumina and 570,000 tons of ingots per year.
?We plan to export the alumina to various countries such as China , the US and Japan . The alumina will also be used in Indonesia ,? he said as quoted by The Jakarta Post.
According to Jianbo, his company has partnered with PT Mitra Karsa Utama for the construction of the smelter. ?Our local partner has a 5 percent share in this project,? he said.
Indonesia supplied 80 percent of China ?s bauxite imports in 2011. As of now, Indonesia only has one aluminum smelter operated by PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminum (Inalum) in North Sumatra , which annually produces 250,000 tons of aluminum ingots, 60 percent of which is exported to Japan.
The Energy and Mineral Resource ministry director general for coal and minerals, Thamrin Sihite said last month that 125 companies had expressed interest in building mineral smelters in 2014. The government is currently evaluating the proposed projects. (*)