Sinar Mas to build two biodiesel plants

Indonesia’s diversified Sinar Mas Group plans to build two biodiesel plants with a total capacity of 600,000 tons a year to tap growing demand in the United States and Europe. Danny Jozal, the group’s alternative energy chairman, said one of its subsidiaries, PT Nabati Energy Mas, will form a joint venture with a U.S. energy firm to build palm oil-based biodiesel plants, two of the largest planned projects in Asia. The first biodiesel plant with a capacity of 400,000 tons a year will be built in Dumai in Sumatra island, while the second plant with a capacity of 200,000 tons per year will be built in Lumut in neighboring Malaysia. “The Malaysia plant may start at the end of 2007 because all the machinery has been ordered, while the Dumai plant may begin operations in the middle of 2008,” said Jozal. (March 29, 2007