JAKARTA - The ceramic industry in the country continues to thrive to meet the needs of the domestic and export markets, by increasing production capacity through new investments or factory expansion. This effort will further strengthen the flow of the national ceramic tile supply chain in line with the import substitution program of 35%.
"In developing the ceramic industry, we must optimize domestic production resources with the vision of making Indonesia one of the top five ceramic tile producers in the world," said Plt. Director General of Chemical, Pharmaceutical and Textile Industry (IKFT) of the Ministry of Industry, Ignatius Warsito in his speech representing the Minister of Industry at the Inauguration of Plant 5B Expansion and Reviewing the Plant 5C Plant Expansion Project of PT Arwana Citramulia Tbk in Mojokerto, East Java, Wednesday (20/7) .
Warsito said that his party appreciates PT Arwana Citramulia Tbk which has realized its investment, because it will have a broad impact on the national economy. In addition, this expansion proves that government policies are working well in an effort to revive the enthusiasm of industry players after being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic
Ministry of Industry noted that PT Arwana Citra Mulia Tbk disbursed Rp300 billion to increase the capacity of 3 million square meters from Plant 5B for the production of 60x60 cm ceramic tiles. In addition, the additional capacity of 4.4 million square meters from the Plant 5C project which will start production in early 2023 with local workforce needs of up to 401 people.
"Not only PT Arwana, during the first semester of 2022, there are two other investments in the ceramic tile sector, namely in the Kendal Industrial Estate of IDR 1.2 trillion and in the Batang Integrated Industrial Estate with an investment value of IDR 1.5 trillion," he said. Warsito.
Warsito believes that this year will be a momentum for the revival of the non-oil and gas processing industry sector, including for the ceramic industry. This is reflected in the positive performance of the ceramics industry as a sub-sector of the non-metallic mineral industry, which grew 1.35% with a contribution of 0.47% (y-o-y) in the first quarter of 2022. investment in the chemical, pharmaceutical and textile (IKFT) industry sector was 2.69%. (LM)