Gresik. State fertilizer company Petrokimia Gresik, known as Petrogres, is developing three projects worth $1.06 billion in 2014 to boost production, its chief said, Jakarta Globe reported news.
Hidayat Nyakman, the company’s president director said in Gresik, East Java, that Petrogres was developing a new $200 million acid phosphate plant.
To further increase output, Petrogres is also working on a $160 million project to revamp and double production at its existing acid phosphate plant, also in Gresik.
The company also plans to construct a second ammonia urea plant projected to be worth $700 million.
The company broke ground on the new acid phosphate plant in 2010 and the facility is expected to start commercial operation in the second quarter of 2014.
The project — a joint venture with Jordan Phospate Mines, based in the Middle Eastern kingdom — will produce up to 200,000 tons of phosphate per year, which will be used as raw materials in fertilizers like SP-36 and NPK Phonska.
“This new plant is expected to contribute to the company’s revenue in 2014,” Hidayat told reporters at a ceremony held to review the company’s performance throughout 2013.
Petrogres and Jordan Phosphate will each own a 50 percent stake in the project, which will be called Petro Jordan Abadi.
With the renovation of its existing acid phosphate plant, which currently produces 200,000 tons of phosphate per year, Petrogres plans to boost output significantly to 600,000 tons per year and allow the plant to produce purified gypsum of up to 600,000 tons per year.
Hidayat said this upgrade, along with the new plant, would help Indonesia reduce imports of acid phosphate products, which will subsequently help “save foreign exchange reserves” in a time when the depreciating rupiah is under pressure.
Petrogres’s second ammonia urea plant — also located in Gresik — is projected to produce around 1,800 to 2,000 metric tons of ammonia per year.
Petrogres had acquired the land on which the plant will be built in 2007, but project development proved to be slow.
Hidayat gave no further details on when the new $700 million plant will be completed, but the company expects it will reduce Petrogres’s dependency on urea and ammonia brought in from other cities.
Petrogres has had to ship around 600,000 tons of urea and 400,000 tons of ammonia from a fellow state fertilizer company Pupuk Kalimantan Timur, whose production facilities are in Bontang, East Kalimantan.