Semen Baturaja Begins Selling its Cement Products in Pontianak

PALEMBANG – The Company of Semen Baturaja (SMBR) has recently started prime shipping its cement products to Pontianak. The product was transported from Boom Baru port on Palembang, to Pontianak on Wednesday, 10 June 2020. The Director of SMBR Marketing, Dede Pasarade, explained that the delivering of the product to Pontianak is a continuity from the market trial that has been done since 2019 then. A total of 750 tons of cement was transported in the prime shipping. Dede also explained that during this month of July, there will be two shipping with a capacity total of 2750 ton. “Should the prime shipping went well, SMBR is ready for a long-term contract with local distributor,” he said.

The primes shipping was done by collaborating with the Tanjung Priok harbor officials, which is a subsidiary company of Pelindo II, whose role is a loading and unloading services company that is appointed by SMBR for its handling service. Dede mentioned that SMBR’s expansion into the cement market in Pontianak was one of the company’s strategic steps to improve the utilization of their existing plants. Furthermore, he added, the company perceived that the cement market in Kalimantan (Pontianak in particular) to be still very prospective for development, regardless of the national cement industry oversupply. “We are confident that our company will be able to attain 5% of the market’s segment in Pontianak for the entirety of 2020”, he said.

Dede further explained that other than the focus on cement sales in South Sumatra market, SMBR will also continue to try expanding its market in the future despite the oversupply condition of the national cement industry and the negative inclination of its growth due to the impact of Covid-19 pandemic. “With the addition of SMBR cement product in Pontianak, we wanted to prove that SMBR is capable of expanding its territory outside of Sumatra,” he said again. Other than Pontianak, SMBR has also prepared several new potential market places outside of Sumatra that are ready to be worked on to reach the company’s target in 2020. “Even right now, we are already looking into possibility in cement exporting and clinker bricks,” he lastly added.