Ceramics Industry Demands Government Promise Related to Gas Price Decrease

INDUSTRY.co.id - Jakarta- The national ceramics industry has promised the government's promise related to the decline in gas prices for industry. As is known, President Joko Widodo on October 4, 2016 ladder has instructed the gas price for the industry of US $ 5-6 per MMBTU. However, this has not been realized until now.

President Director of PT Puri Kemenangan Jaya (Centro Keramik), who is also one of the members of the Gas Users Industry Forum (FIPGB), Jusmery Chandra said, we are very concerned because the President has declared the decline in gas prices since January 2016, in fact until now the price of gas the industry is still not down.

"We urge the government to be consistent with the promise of lowering the price of gas," said Yusmeri to the press conference of natural gas price decline in Jakarta on Monday (9/10/2017).

He added that the current conditions are really difficult. Currently there are eight ceramic factories that close due to the High Operational Cost. "That means, about 20 percent of the total national ceramic factory is closed," he explained.

Furthermore, Yusmeri revealed, currently the national ceramic utilization is only about 60-70 percent. While the installed capacity of national ceramics reaches 580 million square meters, meanwhile, the national ceramic production capacity reaches 350 million square meters per year.

"This figure is small if you see Indonesia who is in the 5th position in the World," explained Yusmeri.

According to him, industrial gas prices absorb 35-40 percent of the total production price. With the amount of absorption it will be a danger to us as a ceramic manufacturer to survive.

"Nowadays most of the factories only achieve 40-60 percent utilization, it's very hard, with 60 percent factory utilization means that the factory is already losing money, so it's almost impossible for the industry to grow, even less," Yusmeri said.

Therefore, Yusmeri expects the government to immediately realize the President's instruction related to the decline in gas prices, so that the national ceramic producers are getting excited and passionate in producing national ceramics.