Business

Thursday August 2, 2012

KKB Engineering eyes lucrative smelting plant contract in Bintulu

By JACK WONG
jackwong@thestar.com.my


KUCHING: KKB Engineering Bhd, which secured a RM171mil contract from Pertama Ferroalloys Sdn Bhd on Tuesday, is setting its eyes next on a lucrative contract to be dished out by OM Materials (Sarawak) Sdn Bhd for the construction of a manganese and ferrosilicon alloy smelting plant in Samalaju Industrial Park, Bintulu.

KKB, which has won three major contracts in the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (Score), has been pre-qualified by OM Sarawak for the plant's construction job.

“We will submit the bid to construct the smelting plant once OM Sarawak finalises the design of its project,” KKB executive director Kho Pok Tong told StarBiz yesterday.

KKB subsidiary, KKB Builders Sdn Bhd, was awarded the project's RM70mil site earthworks contract last year.

Kho said the company would complete the earthworks and hand over the site by next month.

OM Sarawak, a 80:20 joint venture between Australia-based OM Holdings Ltd (OMH) and Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMSB), expects capital expenditure (capex) of US$592mil (RM1.86bil) for the smelting project. KKB is an associate company of CMSB.

According to OMH, the majority of the plant's civil and structural drawings had been completed while the mechanical and electrical drawings are expected to be ready during the current quarter.

It said the site would be ready for commencement of plant construction next month and it would take 30 months to complete the factory. Ferrosilicon production under phase one is expected to start in the first quarter of 2014. Phase two is expected to be commissioned in the first quarter of 2015 to produce silicon manganese and high carbon ferromanganese.

Last month, OM Sarawak awarded a US$36.1mil contract to Pestech Sdn Bhd for the engineering, procurement and construction of a 275kV power sub-station.

OM Sarawak and Pertama Ferroalloys, formerly AML Manganese (M) Sdn Bhd, are among the first batch of four pioneer investors in energy-intensive industries in Samalaju. The other two investors are Press Metal Bhd and Japan's Tokuyama Corp, which are building an aluminium smelter and polycrystalline silicon plant respectively.

Kho said KKB had been pre-qualified for the site earthworks of another energy-intensive project in Samalaju.

Industry sources said three to four more Score investors are planning to build their manufacturing facilities.

Pertama is investing some RM790mil in the manganese ferroalloy smelting plant which will be implemented in two phases.

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