RI govt ready to take over Inalum

The Indonesian government is ready to take full control of PT Indonesia Asahan Aluminium (Inalum) after Japanese consortium Nippon Asahan Aluminum’s 30-year contract to manage Inalum expires on Oct.30, an official says.

“We no longer depend on Japan and are ready to continue developing PT Inalum as a state-owned enterprise company [BUMN] as of Nov.1,” Inalum’s director of general affairs and human resources Nasril Kamaruddin said on Saturday as quoted by Antara news agency.

Since the 1990’s, he said, both the technology and operation management of the company - founded on Jan.6, 1976 - had been handled by local experts.

“As you can see, the smelting factory and hydropower plant PLTA Asahan II have been used for 30 years but they still look new and can operate well,” said Nasril.

“So, there is no need to worry or make rumors saying that as it is being handed over to the Indonesian government, Inalum will only become scrap metal,” he added.

Nasril said PT Inalum had effectively maintained a production of 225,000 tons of aluminum bars or ingots per year and a hydropower plant production capacity of 426 Megawatts.

“In business, Inalum is very healthy and has a good, profitable prospects as it has paid its investment debts since 2011 and raised a net profit of US$878 million during 2004-2012, or around $97.5 million per year,” he went on.

Inalum has 41.12 percent of stocks owned by the Indonesian government while 58.88 percent belong to Nippon Asahan Aluminum.