Those Continue to Invest: Keppel Land
PT Sukses Manis Tangguh, a wholly-owned subsidiary of SGX-listed Keppel Land Limited, has entered into a conditional sales and purchase agreement with Bank Central Asia (BBCA) to a acquire land at Jl Jenderal Sudirman, Jakarta for Rp586 billion. This is the second land acquisition by Keppel Land in Indonesia this year.
Mineral Processing Investments
Forget about Freeport’s long-delayed copper smelter project in Gresik, East Java for a while. This might only be in commercial operation in four years time. Try to visit Morowali Regency in Central Sulawesi, where an integrated mineral processing complex continues its growth. Chinese companies Delong Holdings, Shanghai Decent, and Tsingshan Steel develop multi billion USD complex.
Refined Sugar Auction
Kompas, the largest newspaper, and Koran Tempo addressed the industrial sugar auction in their respective publication today, but with opposite angle and tone. Both were unbalanced coverage. This reflects controversy in the society and business community about the planned auction starting October 1st.
Harvest Time: Toll Road
PT Trans Marga Jateng, a joint venture between Jasa Marga (JSMR) and Astra Group, has on Friday (Sept 15) opened the Bawen-Salatiga section (17.5 KM) of Semarang-Solo toll road without charges, pending decision about toll tariff. The soft opening suggests immediate commercial operation of the section.
Indonesia’s Growing Influence in Oleochemical Industry
As the world’s largest producer and exporter of crude palm oil (CPO), Indonesia is set to play a more dominant role in the oleochemical industry. Yesterday, Minister of Industry Airlangga Hartarto inaugurated a new oleochemical plant in Dumai, Riau province built by PT Energi Sejahtera Mas, a joint venture between Sinarmas Group and CEPSA Quimica SA (Spain).
Budi Gunadi Sadikin & INALUM’s Future
Minister of state-owned enterprises has appointed Budi Gunadi Sadikin, former CEO of state bank Mandiri, as new president director of state aluminium producer PT Inalum replacing Winardi, who becomes director of state fertilizer company PT Pupuk Indonesia. This is an interesting development to watch for various reasons.
Media Industry Outlook
Meikarta, a township developed by Lippo Group, has dominated advertisements in print, online, and TV in the past few months. Nearly every day we see five full-page ads of Meikarta in Kompas, the largest newspaper in the country, three full-page ads each in smaller newspapers like Koran Tempo, Bisnis Indonesia, and The Jakarta Post.
Different Fate of Hutchison and DP World
Extension of contract for PT Jakarta International Container Terminal (JICT), a joint venture between Hutchison Port and state port management company Pelindo II, has been subject to controversies and political pressures in the past few years. Series of workers’ strike and pressures from the House of Representatives (DPR), until now at least, failed to kick Hutchison Port out.
Cement Market: Another Promising Data in August
Cement market continues its positive trend in August with year-on-year sales growth of 9% to 6.47 million tons. Compared to the previous month, domestic cement market increased by 15.7%, thanks to strong demand from Java and eastern part of Indonesia. In the first eight months of 2017, accordingly, cement market grew 5.6% year-on-year to 41.1 million tons.
Growing Acquisition of Indonesian Assets
Fuji Electric Co Ltd (Japan) has recently signed a contract with Kubota Corporation to acquire all shares of PT Metec Semarang held by Kubota and Kubota Vending Services Co Ltd. Fuji also announced specific initiatives for PT Metec Semarang (PTMS). Last week, Italian company MZB Group acquired PT Caswells Indonesia, a coffee player.