SMBR Ensure the Company’s Operation Will Not be Hindered Amidst the Coronavirus Pandemic

Applying the Various Preventive Measures in Accordance with the Protocol Standard set by the Central Government

PALEMBANG – The current spreading of Coronaviruse Disease 2019 (Covid-19) has worsened. As of 5 April 2020, a number of 2273 positive infection case has been listed in Indonesia. Currently, there are at least 44 patients under surveillance that are undergoing treatment with 16 of them declared infected in South Sumatra. The government continues to warn its people to always be cautious with Covid-19 transmission by reducing group activities and maintaining cleanliness and health. In the attempt to hasten the handling of Covid-19, the government has also set up a large-scale social distancing measure.

PT Semen Baturaja (SMBR) is one of the State-Owned Business Enterprises operating on South Sumatra which has had taken several measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 as per the protocol standard set by the Central Government, such as:

1. Organizing socialization to educate about the transmission and prevention of Covid-19 to employees of SMBR that were being directly taught by the Boards of Direction and Management and the Management of Siloam Sriwijaya Hospital who collaborated with SMBR.
2. Organizing another Covid-19 handling socialization to employees of SMBR and external party through various contents in social media, banner, poster, and flyer scattered around the work area of SMBR.
3. Publishing the SOP of vigilance in treating Covid-19 infection for employees of SMBR and their family.
4. Mandating the body temperature measuring and sterilization within the sterilization chamber for employees and guests entering the area inside the office and plant of SMBR.
5. Providing necessities that help to maintain cleanliness and health in company’s environment such as hand sanitizer for every employee while also placing it in public area, distributing face mask, and forming Hotline Centre along with unit rooms for medical purpose in each site for employees who need treatment.
6. Sterilization of work area by periodic disinfectant spraying.
7. Applying the Work From Home (WFH) policy for employees whose age are over 50 years old and mothers with pregnancy. Those who are included in the WFH category are perceived to be more vulnerable to Covid-19 compared.
8. Applying the Physical Distancing policy on all work activities by restricting activities that require the gathering of mass of people, such as ceremony, morning exercise, and meetings, to only include up to ten people at maximum.
9. Optimizing the usage of Video Conference as a mean of communication and coordination meeting between site in order to minimize the need of work trip,
10. Limiting the number of external party or guest visiting SMBR.
11. The accepting and distributing of document or letter work will be required to be in the form of softcopy and sent through email.

SMBR is also part of and playing an active role within the Task Force of Covid-19 Handling both in the province of South Sumatra and the Ministry of State-Owned Business Enterprise. SMBR also supports the government in managing the spreading of Covid-19 to prevent it from proliferating any further.

As an example, SMBR together with the Regional Government of OKU have done disinfectant spraying on many public areas in OKU region starting from 26 March then. “Other than that, we are also currently have coordinated with the other State-Owned Business Enterprises in supplying the numerous necessities like protective equipment for medical workers, face masks and hand sanitizers for people who need it,” as stated.

The steps and policies that have been utilized by the company under the preventive measure of Covid-19 were done with the aim to ensure the well being of every employee, and protecting them from the risk of COvid-19 infection while also allow them to still work safely and comfortably. “We are predicting that there would be a 20% decrease in cement sale throughout Semester I-2020 due to Covid-19,” as noted.

It’s noticeable on February where the sales number of SMBR has been reconciliated by 14% in conjunction with the 12% reconciliation of the cement demand in South Sumatra. Even so, companies remain confident that there would be growth in sales during the entirety of 2020 through reinforcement in the growth of property and infrastructure sectors that has become the main sector of cement manufacturing.

In the attempt to alleviate the decrease of demand for cement that is being exacerbated by Covid-19 pandemic, SMBR has prepared several strategies to push for its productivity in 2020, such as: the diversification of underlying cement product, doing cost efficiency in several product lineups, and also by applying marketing strategies focusing on the sale of cement in SMBR-based markets.

SMBR is also hoping for a growth on cement demand within the retail sector in relation with the potential stimulus or incentive from housing provided by government, in following what had once been stated by the minister of Ministry of Public Works and Public Housing of Republic of Indonesia, Basuki Hadimuljono. In addition, it is also hoped that the first phase of village fund distribution on May could further push the sales number of SMBR cement.