PT Chandra Asri Petrochemical Tbk (Chandra Asri; Jakarta, Indonesia) and Royal Vopak (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) have signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to set up a joint venture company for collaboration in the industrial infrastructure business in Cilegon, Banten Province, Indonesia.
Chandra Asri and Vopak will explore exciting storage opportunities in supply networks, to help grow existing petrochemical value chains and lay the foundations for an expanded industrial cluster in Cilegon, Banten Province, Indonesia.
The finalization of this LOI and the setting up of the joint venture company is subject to final terms and conditions, including customary regulatory and shareholder approvals.
Erwin Ciputra, President Director and CEO of Chandra Asri states: “We are pleased by the strong interest shown by a world-class operator like Vopak to partner with us. We look forward to productive discussions with Vopak to jointly explore growing our existing jetty and tank farm operations, with two key strategic objectives: Firstly to develop a new jetty and tank farm line of business to serve new third party customers, and secondly to prepare for the investment and construction of the supporting infrastructure of our second petrochemical complex. We strongly believe in the growth potential of the petrochemical industry in Indonesia; and this initiative marks another step forward in that direction to solidify our business scale and reach, to serve the needs of our customers and the domestic market.”
Michiel Gilsing, Division President, Vopak Asia & Middle East, said, “We are excited about partnering with Indonesia’s premier petrochemical producer Chandra Asri to explore this opportunity in industrial infrastructure services. We believe in the long-term growth potential of Indonesia and this potential collaboration will enable us to further invest in Indonesia in Industrial Terminals which has been earmarked as one of our growth focus areas.”
Today, Vopak jointly owns and operates one oil terminal in Jakarta (49% ownership) and one chemicals terminal in Merak (95% ownership).