Saraswanti To Cooperate With Chinese University To Build Fertilizer Plants

Surabaya, East Java, Nov 19 (Antara) - The Saraswanti Group will cooperate with Ocean University of China to speed up construction of new fertilizer factories it is building in a number of areas in Indonesia. The company hopes to increase its total production capacity by 440,000 tons to 860,000 tons a year, Chief Executive Officer Saraswanti Group Y.N Hari Hardono said. Hardono told reporters hare on Tuesday in addition to experts, the Chinese university is also ready to supply part of equipment needed by the factories. "Ocean University is one of the oldest universities in China having produced many scientists and producers of equipment of fertilizer factories, Hardono said. He said the Chinese university also is experienced in building fertilizer factories, adding it has built fertilizer factories in a number of countries such as Turkey and Middle-east countries. He said his company already started cooperation with the Chinese university in 2010 and in 2014, the company renewed cooperation in its project to build new fertilizer factories. "We have visited China and met with a number of experts from the university to invite them to see a number of out factories and they agreed to offer help," he said. There are four new factories under construction by the Saraswanti Group -- in North Sumatra, Riau, Central Kalimantan and Sulawesi, each with a production capacity of 100,000 tons per year, he said. The factories in Medan of North Sumatra Medan, Central Kalimantan and Sulawesi would produce NPK Granule, and the one in Riau will produce Dolomite. In addition, the company plans to expand the production capacity of its NPK briquette factory in Medan, from now 60,000 tons to 100,000 tons per year. "Investment and working capital set aside for the new factories and capacity expansion projects will total Rp683.5 billion and US$6.21 million. The fund would be derived from internal fund and in bank loans," said H Yahya Taufik, Chief Operating Officer for Fertilizer Division of the Saraswanti Group. The project, originally to be completed by the end of 2015, is expected to be ready for operation earlier as the licensing process, physical work including installation of machines are already finished. "The dolomite factory project in Riau is expected to be completed in May 2015, followed by NPK Briquette plant in Medan in June , 2015, the NPK Granule factory project in Medan in August and and a similar factory in Central Kalimantan in October," Yahya said . The NPK Granule factory to be built in Sulawesi is expected to be operational in 2016. The new factories and the capacity expansion would bring the company`s production capacity to a total of 860,000 tons of fertilizers in 2016 from 420,000 tons at present, Yahya said. The NPK product of the Saraswanti Group is specially for plantations such as oil palm , sugar and coffee plantations. The company also has established cooperation with a number of research centers to improve its technology and expand its products. "The market is highly potential for NPK complete fertilizer in Indonesia as domestic production still falls short of requirement. Requirement is around 7.8 million tons a year as against production of only 2.5 million tons ," Yahya said.