Local shipbuilders tie up to win Pertamina?s tender

National shipbuilding companies will tie up to win a tender to build 14 oil tankers worth US$400 million for the state-owned oil and gas company Pertamina. The companies will soon meet to formulate efforts in securing the contract, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Monday.

"The meeting will be held on July 17. This meeting is very important to unify steps in securing the contract, and if possible to pressure the government to give a priority to local shipbuilders in the tender," a source told the daily last week.

According to him three state owned shipbuilders PT PAL Indonesia, PT Dok & Perkapalan Kodja Bahari and PT Dok Perkapalan Suabaya have formed a consortium with another state owned shipping company PT Bahtera Adhiguna, which has been registered as one of the participants of the tender.

"PT Bahtera Adhiguna is one of 15 participants of the tender. The company has cooperated with JFW of Germany to finance the project," he said.

Pertamina has recently opened an international tender for the procurement of its 14 tankers consisting of 12 tankers with a capacity of 30,000 Dead Weight Tons and the other two with 100 DWT. The winner will be announced in early July.

According to Irnanda Laksanawan, an executive of the Association of Local Shipping Companies and Offshore Equipment (Iperindo), one of the main obstacles faced by the local shipbuilders in the tender is the high cost of the funding.

The local shipbuilders have to pay lending rate of between 18 percent and 21 percent per annum if they obtain loans from local banks. In other countries, the lending rate is only between 6 percent and 9 percent. (*)