INDONESIAN cement company, Semen Indonesia International (SII), a subsidiary of the Semen Indonesia Group, is looking into expanding in Mindanao in a bid to tap opportunities presented by the Philippine Government's Build, Build, Build program.
"We are looking for opportunities here because the President (Rodrigo Duterte) is claiming to do a massive infrastructure development in the sourthern part of the Philippines (Mindano), which is very close our facility (in Indonesia), and we want to participate in that (development)," said Rahman Kurniawan, SII Managing Director, in a media interview at the sidelines of the 1st Indonesian Manufactured Products Expo 2017 at the House of Indonesia, Juna Subdivision, Davao City on July 22, 2017.
He said the demand for cement and other construction materials are expected to increase with the Philippine government's infrastructure program.
Kurniawan pointed out that their expansion to Mindanao is still in the drawing board.
However, should they expand, they will be setting up a production facility here with a partner.
At present they are already exporting around 20,000 metric tons (MT) to Mindanao. In Indonesia they currently have three large cement facilities and also have another production facility in Vietnam. The facilities in Indonesia has an annual production capacity of some 30 million MT.
The Semen Indonesia Group is the major cement producer of Indonesia; producing around 60 percent of the nation's cement needs.
SII is among the Indonesia companies who attended the 1st Indonesian Manufactured Products Expo 2017, held from July 22 to 24 at the House of Indonesia.
Berlian Napitupulu, consul general of the Indonesian Consulate in Davao City, said the expo is aimed to boost the trade relations between Indonesia and the Philippines.
He also said they hope to improve the utilization of the Davao City-General Santos-Bitung, Indonesion sea route. At present, there had been a challenge in filling up the vessel being utilized, M/V Super Shuttle Roll-on, Roll-off 12 owned by Asian Marine Transport Corporation.
With the expo, Napitupulu hopes that there will be an improvement in the load factor of the vessel being used in the sea trade route.