Pertamina asked to buy oil tankers from local shipbuilders

The head of the association of Indonesian shipbuilding companies (Iperindo), Joeswanto Karijodimedjo has asked state owned oil and gas company Pertamina to buy oil tankers from local shipbuilders, Investor Daily reported on Tuesday.

Speaking to the press on Monday, Joeswanto said that the local shipbuilders had the expertise and the capacity to meet Pertamina's needs for new oil tankers. "Our problem is only related to the financing," he said.

He was commenting on reports that Pertamina will soon launch the tender for the procurement of oil tankers with sizes between 5,000 DWT to 25,000 DWT. Joeswanto said that the local banks were still reluctant to provide credits for the local shipbuilding companies despite their promising business activities.

Meanwhile newly appointed minister of industry, Fahmi Idris, said that he would discuss the matter with the local banks and studied the possibility if local banks could provide the funding for shipbuilding activities.

Due to the lack of orders, the utilization rate of the local shipbuilding capacity is only about 30 percent.(*)