PT Semen Indonesia Looks to Control Market Share in ASEAN

Tuban (Antara) - State-owned cement company, PT Semen Indonesia, has set itself a target to control at least 10 percent of the cement market share in the Southeast Asian (ASEAN) region, according to its president director, Dwi Soetjipto. The company's current market share in Southeast Asia from the products of Thang Long Cement Vietnam is just around 4 percent, Soetjipto remarked, after inaugurating PT Semen Gresik's central office building here, Friday. "But in the years to come we want to control the market share in ASEAN by at least 10 percent, because some corporate actions have been prepared to go that way," Soetjipto said in the company of Semen Gresik President Director Sunardi Prionomurti and Semen Indonesia Secretary Agung Wiharto. The Thang Long Cement Vietnam was acquired by PT Semen Indonesia at the end of 2012 as a preliminary step to penetrate regional market competition, he said. He planned to make investments to increase production capacity of the cement company in Vietnam, because the current production utility has reached 100 percent, Sutjipto noted. "In our first acquisition, the production utility was 60 percent of the total capacity of around 2.3 million tons per year, but now it has reached 100 percent so we need additional investment to increase the production capacity," he remarked. The plan to increase the production capacity of Thang Long factory is currently under review, but he said the additional production capacity is projected to reach 1.5 to 2.5 million tons per year. The factory in Vietnam is projected to serve the cement market in the eastern area of Southeast Asia, while in western area the PT Semen Indonesia is planning to invest in a factory in Myanmar, Soetjipto further added. "We hope to start investing next year, and then to step forward to other regions of Asia, such as Bangladesh for the southern area of Asia," he stated. (*)