Humpuss Intermoda plans to buy new LNG tankers

PT Humpuss Intermoda Transportasi plans to buys 10 new ships including liquefied natural gas (LNG) tankers to further strengthen the company’s shipping business, Kompas reported on Thursday.

Humpuss’ president Teguh Arya Putra said that the company would soon raise loans up to about US$70 million from international banks to finance the purchases of the new ships.

“Overseas loans will be less costly than domestic loans or bonds because larger parts of the company’s incomes are in the form of US dollars,” he said.PT Humpuss, which partly handles the shipment of Indonesia’s LNG exports, operates about 14 LNG tankers and 16 tug-and-burg ships.

Teguh said that besides strengthening its shipping business, PT Humpuss also planned to expand into the electricity infrastructure and mining sector. “We are still for example studying the possibility of building a new power plant in Bangka,” he said, adding that the investment funds to be allocated for the power plant construction would reach about US$25 million. (*)