Baturaja Cement Corp. has implemented a business scheme based on the concept of forest engineering to increase production output and environment sustainability.

Through this business concept, we are aiming to increase our cement output, and at the same time, we are also keen on improving environment sustainability and not just conducting mere afforestation," Baturaja Cements General Director Rahmad Pribadi informed ANTARA in Jakarta on Wednesday.

During their media visit to the Indonesian News Agency ANTARA, Pribadi stated that Baturaja Cement is already cooperating with the Faculty of Forestry from the Gadjah Mada University to conduct research on the plan.

He remarked that the concept of forest engineering was first applied by Baturaja Cement in the cement sector. The concept is not merely about planting more trees but also focuses on healing the soil of areas having hazardous materials by making it conducive for replanting activities.

"The soil that contains traces of cement is poisonous. Before cement mining was conducted, it was difficult to grow plants due to the low water content. This is what we are working on now. We process the soil after we mine the cement, so it becomes healthy for the plants to grow," he said.

Currently, the forest engineering program is underway. Baturaja Cement has an area of 500 hectares. Once the Baturaja II plant starts commercial operations this September, the plan will be extended to ensure that the forest engineering program reaches more areas.

The Baturaja II cement plant will begin commercial operations in September 2017 after undergoing two months of trials.

According to Pribadi, the schedule for operations was moved ahead by a month, from Oct 1 before. The plant will increase the overall production capacity to 1.8 million tons.

The Baturaja II plant will also increase its production capacity by 92.5 percent, or 3.85 million tons, in 2018 from two million tons this year.

The new plant will be built in Baturaja, South Sumatra, with an investment value of Rp3.4 trillion.

Source: ANTARA