BANDUNG: PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk, a leading supplier of petrochemical products, plans to invest US$740.5 million until 2015 to expand its production capacity of polymer and to build new plants.Under its short-term plan, the company plans to increase production capacity of polypropylene (PP) and polyethylene (PE) by 120% and 5% respectively from current the capacity of 360,000 tons PP and 320,000 tons PE per year, said Suryandi, Chandra Asri's director.Debottlenecking for PP has been completed in the second quarter and it costs of about US$30 million. We expect to finish it for PE in the fourth quarter and it will cost around US$5.5 million, he said at the end of last week.The company has prepared short and long-term plans to develop an integrated petrochemical business, said Suryandi.The company has started a project which will process C4 or butane which is fully exported to Japan, South Korea and Thailand, into advanced products of butadiene and butane-1.If we only exported as C4, we can only get around US$300 per ton. But we can get a minimum of US$1,300 per ton, if C4 was processed further into butadiene which is used for LLDFE production, he said.LLDPE or linear lowdensity polyethylene is a PE polymer which is used as a raw material for plastic packaging and bag.The company, through Toyo Engineering, has planned to complete the construction of a butadiene plant worth $110 millon in June 2011 which will have a capacity of 100,000 tons per year.In the meantime, the company will also invest US$25 million for butane-1 project which will start by the end of this year and is scheduled to operate commercially in 2014.In medium-term, the company increase annual production capacity for PE plant to 536,000 tons in 2013 from 336,000 tons after debottlenecking, said Suryandi.The plan will need higher US$80 million investment.We also plan to increase the capacity of ethylene plant to 1 million tons per year from currently 600,000 tons. It will need US$340 investment.It is expected to start commercial production by 2015," he said.Liquefied petroleum Gas (LPG) TerminalChandra Asri also plans to develop a LPG terminal through a joint venture with Vopak Singapore.We have signed an initial agreement with Vopak. It will need an estimated investment of by US$150 million to develop an LPG terminal with 1 million tons capacity. The project is expected to complete by 2014, he said.Chandra Asri and other local petrochemical industries have been facing a lack of raw material which have hampered expansion, said Vice Chairman of Indonesian Aromatic, Olefin, and Plastic Industries Association (Inaplas) Suhat Miyarso.Petrochemical industry needs 1.7 million of naphta annualy and all are imported.Head of Indonesian Research & Strategic Analysts Faisal Basri viewed government hasnt paid attention for petrochemical industry, especially for supply of raw material needs.Current policies on oil and natural gas sector dont support development of national petrochemical industry, he said.Director of Downstream Chemical Industry at the Industry Ministry Tony Tanduk said the government is working on to provide oil and gas-bases raw material or other type of raw material based from local production.(t01/msw)

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