Semen Gresik to build US$200 million power plant
Monday, June 4 2007 - 01:19 AM WIB
State-owned cement producer PT Semen Gresik will build a power plant with total capacity of 200 megawatts to meet the company's growing electricity needs, Kontan reported Monday.
Cholil Hasan, the finance director of the Gresik, East Java-based cement producer, said recently that the company would need at least about US$200 million to build the power plant.
He said that the construction of the new power plant would be in line with the company's plan to build a new cement plant which would have a production capacity of about 4.4 million tons a year.
According Cholil, the construction of the power plant would significantly reduce the company's expense to buy electricity from state-owned electricity company PLN which contributed about 37 percent to the company's total operating costs.
"If we can operate our own power plant with operating cost of about 4.4 or 4.5 US cent per kilowatt, it will be cheaper than buying," he was quoted as saying last week.
Meanwhile, president director Semen Gresik, Dwi Sutjipto said that 30 percent of the development funds will be taken from the company's internal resources and the remaining will be from external sources.
The company also plans to acquire coal mines to secure the company’s coal supply for the power plant, but it did not give further details. (*)