July 04, 2010

Wilmar Sugar plans in Papaua New Guinea

Wilmar International Ltd said it plans to develop sugar plantation and sugar mill in Papua with an estimated investment cost of around US$2 billion, a company official said at the weekend.

M.P. Tumanggor, commissioner of PT Wilmar Nabati, a subdiaary of Wilmar International, was quoted by kontan.co.id on Saturday, said the company will conduct a feasibility study for investing in sugar plantation in Papua within the next six months.

"We don’t know for certain yet when the plan could be realized as the infrastructure in Papua is not sufficient," he said, noting the high transportation and distribution costs would make sugar price to be expensive and less competitive.

Tumanggor said Wilmar's management had been in talks with M.S. Hidayat, Industry Minister, as the company is proposing to get incentives for building roads and ports.

The cost to develop infrastructure alone in Papua could reach Rp2 trillion, he said.

Wilmar International operates in four business segments: merchandising and processing, consumer products, plantation and palm oil mills, and others.

The other segment includes the business of manufacturing and distribution of fertiliser products and ship-catering services.

The company sells 40 percent of its crude palm oil to its customers in Europe, China and India.

No comments: