Timah allocates Rp 300 billion to buy dredgers

State-owned tin mining company PT Timah will allocate Rp 300 billion (1US$ = Rp 10,090) in funds this year to buy eight new dredging ships to boost the company?s offshore tin production activities, Kontan reported Friday.

Corporate Secretary Abrun Abubakar said in Jakarta on Thursday that the new dredging ships to be bought by the company would include seven suction dredgers and one bucket wheel dredger.

?We would use our own funds to finance the new ship purchases,? he said.

Timah would buy two of the seven suction dredgers from a Thai company. This company would build the other five in cooperation with PT Dok Air Kantung, a subsidiary of PT Timah.

The purchase will increase the nuumber of Timah?s suction dredgers to 32 and bucket wheel dregers to 16. ?We hope the new suction dredgers could be operated before the end of this year. But for the new dredger, it will not be completed until 2010,? he added.

With the increase in dredging fleet, the company targets to increase its production to 45,000 tons a year, a half of which are expected to come from offshore areas, Abrun said. (*)