Norsk Hydro may join Tayan aluminium project
Thursday, October 8 2009 - 02:52 AM WIB
Muhammad Luthfi, the chairman of the Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM), said in Jakarta on Wednesday that Norsk Hydro was one of several companies which had proposed to cooperate with Antam in the aluminium project.
Antam?s President Director Aiwin Syah Loebis confirmed that Norsk Hydro, one of three major aluminium producers in Europe, had offered to cooperate in the Tayan aluminium project.
?But the European company has not provided an informal cooperation scheme yet,? he said.
Antam previously planned to cooperate with OAO Russian Aluminium (RusAl) to build a plant able to process 3.6 million wet metric tons (wmt) of bauxite a year into 1.2 million tons of smelter grade alumina a year.
The head of agreement (H0A) of the cooperation plan was signed by Antam and RusAl in Russia in 2007 during the visit of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the country.
Under the initial agreement, Antam would have a 49 percent in the project, with RusAl holding the remaining 51 percent. The two companies planned to invest between US$1.2 billion and $1.5 billion the project. However, no concrete actions have been made since the signing of the cooperation agreement.
BKPM?s chairman Luthfi said that Antam should soon make a decision whether or not to continue its cooperation with the Russian company. ?I would send my deputy and an Antam senior official later this month to seek a clarification whether or not RusAl would continue with the project,? he added. (*)