Steel giant plans expansion into E. Indonesia

JAKARTA. Luxembourg-based Tenaris says it will boost its investment in eastern Indonesia in a move that will support the government’s economic master plan, according to a minister.

The world’s top producer of seamless steel pipes for the oil and gas industry was interested in establishing a logistical base for its oil business with an estimated investment of “hundreds of millions of dollars”, Coordinating Minister for the Economy Hatta Rajasa said on Friday.

“Tenaris wants to realize the investment this year, as soon as possible. They want to invest in eastern Indonesia, because they see the growing development of gas in the area. I offered Kalimantan,” Hatta told reporters after a meeting with Tenaris executives at his office in Jakarta.

Kalimantan is one of six economic corridors to be developed under the government’s ambitious economic master plan to become one of the world’s 10 biggest economies by 2025.

Other corridors include Sumatra, which will be developed as an energy power house; Java which will be developed as an industry and services special zone; Kalimantan, which will be developed as mining zone and Sulawesi-North Maluku, which will be developed as agriculture, forestry and fishery zones.

The plan also calls for developing Bali-Nusa Tenggara as a tourism and food zone and Papua-Maluku as a natural and human resources zone.

“I told [Tenaris] that we are currently developing economic corridors. We need ports to support the plan. I said they could invest in the Papua corridor or the Kalimantan corridor. They are very interested and asked to be included in the development process,” Hatta said.

Indonesia needs Rp 4 trillion (US$460 million) in investment in the first phase of the master plan before 2014, during which the nation’s economy is expected to grow from 7 to 8 percent.

Tenaris, the heaviest weighted stock on Argentina’s benchmark stock index, is also listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is the majority shareholder of PT Seamless Pipe Indonesia Jaya (SPIJ).

SPIJ — which was acquired from Bakrie & Brothers, Green Pipe International and Cakrawala Baru in 2009 — operates in the OCTG (oil country tubular goods) processing business, producing pipe and tube products used in the petroleum industry, such as drill pipe and pipe casings, and has heat treatment and premium connection threading facilities in Cilegon and Batam. (Esther Samboh/The Jakarta Post)

Cek Berita dan Artikel yang lain di Google News