KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. With a target of 4% sales growth in 2019, PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk (INTP) prepares various strategies, including efficiency.

The cement market is getting tighter since PT Semen Indonesia acquired PT Holcim some time ago. However, Indocement claims to be able to maintain its market share in the range of 25.5%. They have prepared several strategies to sustain the market share of the issuers this year.

President Director of PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Tbk Christian Kartawijaya hopes that the two Indocement cement brands can meet their market needs. Tiga Roda Cement, one of these brands, contributes up to 94% of INTP's total sales. One other brand, Semen Rajawali, accounts for a portion of 6%.

"For Semen Rajawali, our strategy is only to sell on a limited basis, namely in Jakarta, West Java, and several cities in Central Java," Christian said on Friday (22/3).

Another strategy he chose was to increase clinker sales. In 2018, clinker sales increased by 47.6%. Government policies that limit imports of clinker make the can absorb domestic clinker production well.

Another effort by INTP is to do vertical integration in ready-to-use and aggregate concrete businesses. Indocement hopes that this strategy will be able to strengthen the ready-made concrete business, especially high-quality ones, to meet the demands of infrastructure projects.

On the efficiency side, INTP increases the use of alternative fuels. In September last year INTP agreed with the West Java provincial government to buy 500 tons of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) as fuel. RDF itself comes from processing 1,500 tons of community waste.

"The use of RDF will reduce dependence on coal as a fuel source. Also, the distance between RDF and Citeureup collection points is only 6.6 km," he said.

Christian stressed that he had implemented efficiency measures since the fourth quarter of 2018. One of his efforts was to analyze logistics and supply chains to be more efficient.

INTP has also built the Lampung Terminal, on an area of 4.2 hectares (ha). The capacity of transporting cement with bag through this terminal reaches 1,500 tons per day and bulk cement as much as 1,000 tons per day.

"With the terminal, now some of our cement is shipped by ship. This step is one of the strategies that we have taken," explained Christian.

Indocement also closed its three factories and replaced them with the P14 factory. The new plant has a production capacity of 4.4 million tons with lower fuel costs.

Editor: Hasbi Maulana