JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – State cement producer PT Semen Indonesia Tbk (SMGR) expects to spend capital expenditure (capex) of Rp1.2 trillion to Rp1.5 trillion this year, down 25% from initial plan Rp2 trillion, Investor Daily reported this morning.

The company earlier planned to invest Rp7 trillion on 2 new cement mills in Rembang (Central Java) and Indarung (Padang/West Sumatra), but the establishment of this 2 cement mills is rescheduled to October 2013, then the fund spent would be only 10-15% of total investment.

This 2 new cement mills are expected to add 6 million tons to SMGR’s cement production capacity which now reaches 30 million tons with national market share of 44-45%.

National cement demand is expected to grow by 6-8% this year, then SMGR expects its revenues and net profit to also grow by more than 20% and 10% each.

Recently, Dahlan Iskan, minister of state-owned enterprises (SoE), demands SMGR to acquire the loss-making PT Semen Kupang, operated in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT) province.

Dahlan said Semen Indonesia has capacity to revitalize Semen Kupang’s cement mills by injecting more funds or fresh capital.

Currently Semen Kupang is owned by central government (61.48%), Bank Mandiri (35.39%), and NTT government (1.12%). (yohanneso@yosefardi.biz)