Semen Gresik's Sales in Jakarta Up

Jakarta (Antara) - The sales of state-owned cement company PT Semen Gresik (SG) in Jakarta and its satellite towns of Bogor, Tangerang and Bekasi (Jabotabek) in the first quarter of 2013 increased by 8.6 percent, its planning bureau chief said. "The sales of Semen Gresik, which is a member of Semen Indonesia, in the first semester of this year rose by 8.6 percent. That means that the volume of our sales grew as expected," SG Bureau Chief for Planning and Marketing Affairs, Rudi Hartono, said in a press statement here on Sunday. He said that the success of his company to increase its sales was thanks to good market demand. Jabotabek is SG's potential market compared with other provinces in Indonesia. PT Semen Gresik sales in Jabotabek accounted for 20 percent of its total cement supplies, he said. The achievement was encouraging because usually sales were dominated by markets near the factory location. But GS factories are located in Gresik and Tuban, which are relatively far from Jakarta. "So, as a player who has not yet had a factory in Jakarta, the achievement is encouraging. We are here assisted by distribution facilities like packing plants and warehouses," he said. In an effort to increase its sales in Jakarta and its buffer towns, SG will optimize the utilization of its packing plants so that the facilities would optimally supply the commodity to customers. It is also expected to maximize the distribution of cement from the sea sector. "The other efforts are to optimize buffer warehouses. It will also nurture partners with distributors to build buffer warehouses as part of the efforts to guarantee supplies to the market," said Rudi. (*)