News: Tengah: More companies keen to pursue smelter project with CMS

KUCHING: The termination of agreements by Cahya Mata Sarawak Bhd (CMS) and Rio Tinto Aluminium (M) Sdn Bhd (RTA) along with Sarawak Energy Berhad (SEB) for an aluminium smelter plant in Bintulu does not mean an end to the proposed project.

According to Second Resource Planning and Environment Minister Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hassan there are many companies waiting in line to take over RTA’s place.

“In any case, we have actually a long list of keen takers from China and the Middle East. They are ready to take up whatever access power that we have,” he said.

Awang Tengah said the agreements between CMS and Rio Tinto along with SEB were terminated by mutual agreement after a failed negotiation on electricity tariff.

He said the state did not incur any loss due to the termination of the agreements.

“After a long discussion and negotiation, unfortunately we fail to come to the commercial agreement with regards to the electricity tariffs. The parties involved could not agree to the commercial agreement, hence RTA agreed to terminate the agreements.

“Our main concern is not who will take up the place, but how my men can allocate power to the investors as the Bakun Hydro is almost all committed. We hope for the Murum Hydro to be completed soon to provide power for more investors and energy intensive industries.

“Currently at Samalaju there are four (heavy industries) on the ground, and recently we have approved 20 more,” Tengah revealed.

Announcing the termination of the agreements on Tuesday, CMS Group managing director Datuk Richard Curtis said CMS had for several years been working to establish the aluminium smelter project.

However, the parties involved had not been able to finalise commercial power supply terms with SEB to meet the parties’ current financial considerations and economic imperatives.

“As a result RTA and CMS have agreed that they would cease to pursue plans to jointly develop the proposed aluminium smelter in Samalaju but remain open to other future possible collaborations,” said Curtis.


Source: http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/3/29/sarawak/11005374&sec=sarawak

Web: Backing Out Of Bakun – Rio Tinto Pulls Out!

The question marks over Taib’s pet mega-project, the billion dollar Bakun Dam, have just multiplied into a full-blown crisis for the so-called ‘CEO of Sarawak’.

The global mining company, Rio Tinto Alcan, has just announced that it is pulling out of the much-touted aluminium smelter venture, SALCO.

This was the flagship project, that was supposed to form the backbone of Taib’s plans to employ the huge surge of hydro-electricity from this enormous structure.

And it leaves the whole fantasy of the Chief Minister’s SCORE (Sarawak Corridor of Energy) concept and his plans to build yet 12 more huge dams hanging in tatters.

Bakun is fast turning into the monstrous white elephant that many had long feared it would.

So much suffering for no use


Floating homes - the Ukip people have returned to their flooded homelands rather than suffer displacement in refugee settlements
Over past weeks and months Sarawak Report has detailed some of the suffering and harm caused by the dam to ordinary people of Sarawak and Malaysia.

Quite apart from the environmental devastation caused by the logging and flooding of a pristine jungle area the size of Singapore and the disruption to the life of Sarawak’s greatest river, the project has brought nothing but misery to the local people.

Ten thousand were forced from their homes, in return for promises of compensation and jobs, which turned into dust once the land had been cleared.

Life is so bleak in the re-settlement zones that many of the native people have chosen to return to their old lands, clinging to the banks of the rising dam waters in their now floating homes.


While people suffered, local MP Billy Abit Joo profited !
And as we have exposed, many of the jobs and contracts presented as opportunities for local communities, were in fact corruptly taken over by hangers on and BN political cronies of the area, like the Federal MP Billy Abit Joo, who has became the main shareholder and beneficiary of the so-called ‘people’s cooperative’ Wargana Consortium.

Sarawak Report and other NGOs have been vigorously drawing attention to these outrages and such information will not have gone un-noticed by a company such as Rio Tinto Alcan, which is sensitive to the views of its western shareholders when it comes to human rights and environmental issues.

Why did Rio Tinto Alcan really pull out of SALCO?

The reason given for Rio Tinto Alcan’s decision to pull out of the planned US$2billion smelter was politely described as a failure to come to an agreement over the price of the electricity being offered from the Bakun Dam.

This is probably indeed a large part of the reason.  The conglomerate was tempted to pull out of its existing operations such as Canada, the UK and Australia as long as it could be guaranteed dirt free electricity.  However, what benefit was that to the people of Sarawak?


Key players in the SALCO project were Taib, Robert Geneid and CMS's Richard Curtis
The point of the dam was to make money!

In fact there is an urgent need to make money from Bakun, in order to somehow pay back the billions that have been siphoned out of the Employees Provident Fund and other Malaysian government pension schemes to build it.

If Bakun cannot get a decent price for its electricity, then those pensioners will lose out.

With the prospects looking grimmer by the day the ‘CEO of Sarawak’ and his BN buddies in the Federal Government are surely at last beginning to realise why no private investors were prepared to touch the project!


Failure! - Key players like CMS's Richard Curtis had put their hopes on winning this key project that would have poured money into Taib's family company!
So, maybe Rio Tinto Alcan’s demands for virtually free electricitywere too much even for Taib and his desperate team lead by brother-in-law, Robert Geneid, and CMS CEO, Richard Curtis, who had invested all their hopes in winning this bid?

Corruption!


We exposed how Australian Commissioner Miles Kupa had worked tirelessly to promote the Rio Tinto bid, despite its corrupt nature and the fact that it would undermine jobs in his own country! Did he think twice?
But, we suspect there was an even more compelling reason for Rio Tinto Alcan to come to the swift conclusion that they shouldn’t be touching Sarawak and its dodgy Chief Minister and his clique of BN cronies and family hangers-on with a barge pole.

That reason was the over-whelming stench of corruption that no amount of sweet talk and cover-up could conceal!

Sarawak Report comprehensively exposed the full scandal behind Taib’s plans to personally make billions out of the SALCO venture just last month.

Australian High Commissioner, Miles Kupa, may have been dragged in to support the bid and Rio Tinto Alcan executives may have flown into Kuching just a fortnight earlier to continue negotiations. However, once the cat was out of the bag that Sarawak’s own Chief Minister was standing to make hundreds of millions, if not billions, out of the carefully crafted deal, how could such supposedly respectable entities continue to be involved?


What use now for all Bakun's electricity? Maybe free electricity for the people of Sarawak!?
Sarawak Report received no response or comment from Rio Tinto Alcan or the Australian High Commissioner from its exposes into their involvement in the corrupted SALCO project, but sometimes actions speak louder than words.

This was not a project that RTA were going to find easy to explain to their shareholders.

Questions still remain about how it was that RTA were still actively negotiating on this clearly corrupted project as late as January this year?

This was long, long after company executives had realised that this was not a joint venture with the State of Sarawak, but with the family firm of the Chief Minister of Sarawak CMS!

More dams!


Sarawak's shame - refugees of Bakun. Taib might not care, but could Rio Tinto Alcan put up with this stain on their image as they profited from the dam?
And yet Taib Mahmud and his BN cronies are still forging ahead with all their plans to build a whole new swathe of dams once they have got the next election out of the way!

Another half million people flooded from their lands (once the wood has been conveniently extracted and the profits divided amongst them).  Why, when there is no use for the electricity?  Why, when neither the Bakun Dam nor even the far older Batang Ai dam are turning even half their turbines most of the time?

The reason is of course, as always, the prospect of profit for Taib Mahmud, who plans to borrow billions for these projects and for SCORE.  Billions of dollars that can be poured into his companies as he gets them involved in all the contracts for building the dams and involving foreign companies in cheap electricity projects (like the doomed SALCO venture).

It is the people of Sarawak who will have to find the money to pay all this borrowing back and they are unlikely to have any profit from these useless dams to help them.

So much for BN’s CEO of Sarawak!

Source: http://www.sarawakreport.org/2012/03/backing-out-of-bakun-rio-tinto-pulls-out/

Web: Samalaju Industrial Park and Tanjung Manis Halal Hub set standards for SCORE

Source: http://investvine.com/samalaju-industrial-park-and-tanjung-manis-halal-hub-set-standards-for-score/

Samalaju Industrial Park and Tanjung Manis Halal Hub set standards for SCORE

Posted by Thar on December 19, 2011 in Economy & Monetary, Infrastructure | 0 Comment

The Samalaju Industrial Park and Tanjung Manis Halal Hub are the two central zones in the SCORE initiative. The two regions are leading the way in terms of on-going projects and are expected to fuel further investments in Sarawak’s overall economic development plan.

Of all the activities and developments taking place within the Sarawak Corridor of Renewable Energy (SCORE), two bustling areas have emerged as cornerstones of the entire project.

The Samalaju Industrial Park (SIP) in Bintulu and the Tanjung Manis Halal Hub in the western-most part of the Corridor are expected to enjoy the highest density of investment from foreign and domestic interests.

Since the launch of SCORE in 2008, both zones have pushed ahead with their respective development agendas, bolstered by investments and pledges from some of the biggest players in their sectors.

The two regions cater to vastly different businesses. SIP is dedicated to heavy and energy intensive industries while TMHH focus on food security, agriculture and halal products. However, both are working in unison to help Sarawak achieve its goal of becoming a developed state by 2020.

SIP is a 7,000-hectare area on the coast of Bintulu dedicated to energy-intensive heavy industry and under the jurisdiction of the Bintulu Development Authority.

The Park will house companies engaged in aluminium smelters, steel, oil refineries, silica-based industries, marine engineering and other industrial and commercial activities.

A dedicated port will be developed inside the SIP to transport raw materials and produce. In addition, Bintulu Port, which is being upgraded to meet the expected demands of industries in the area, will provide another sea route in and out of the Park with massive cargo capability.

The production of aluminium, for which global demand is expected to rise four per cent, will have a strong presence at SIP with three separate projects eventually producing about 1.3 million tonnes a year.

The biggest one is a US$1 billion plant in a joint venture between Cahya Mata Sarawak Berhad and Rio Tinto Alcan, producing 720,000 tonnes. The Aluminium Corporation of China and a Malaysian group led by tycoon Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary and UAE business leader Mohammed Ali Rasheed Alabbar are building a US$1.6 billion smelter with production capacity of 370,000 while local company Press Metal Bintulu have received financing and have starting building a 240,000 capacity plant.

Two manganese smelters will also be established in Samalaju. Hong Kong’s Asia Minerals Ltd is keen to build a RM3 billion factory while Cahya Mata Sarawak is teaming up with Australia’s OM Holdings for manganese and ferro silicon allow plant.

Japan’s Tokuyama Corporation is spending more than RM6 billion for two polycrystalline silicon factories with an eventual annual capacity of 20,000 tonnes.

TMHH will cover close to 80,000 hectares of fertile agricultural land. It is hoped that the Hub will develop to be one of the most scientifically and environmentally advanced halal centres in the world via the use of advanced technologies, renewable energy and sustainable practices.

The first international company to invest in TMHH was Taiwan-based Sea Party International. Together with its subsidiaries, SPI has pledged RM$2 billion in phases. The first phase involved spending RM318 million for aquaculture activities such as tilapia breeding, chlorella cultivation and production of Halal collagen and gelatine. The second phase moves into the production of gelatine from tilapia scales, bones and skin, organic prawn farming and vendor development programmes.

The group has already started construction of its RM30 million research centre in Tanjung Manis.

Bahrain-based BioMe has also visited the site with a view to invest in sustainable and profitable biotech industries in TMHH.

During the Invest Malaysia Forum 2011 in Abu Dhabi in January, TMHH owners, Tanjung Manis Food & Industrial Park Sdn Bhd signed three MoUs that that could rake in millions of dollars’ worth of investments from the Middle East.

The first agreement was between Tanjung Manis Food & Industrial Park Sdn Bhd and Inside Investor to facilitate investments from the GCC into TMHH. The Malaysian company also signed with New York-based Borneo Agriculture to set up a US$500 million fund from GVC to invest in the hub. Perigon Advisory WLL also signed on to establish a RM3 billion Food & Agriculture Fund for Islamic countries. 

Web: Scandal of SALCO – How Taib Plans To Make Billions From Bakun!

Posted Thursday, February 16th, 2012

Scandal of SALCO – How Taib Plans To Make Billions

From Bakun!

 

This post is also available in: Iban, Malay

SALCO discussions in January - Taib, brother in law Robert Geneid, CMS Chief Richard Curtis meet with Rio Tinto Alcan executives in Kuching

Displaced families, who have received so little compensation from Bakun, may be interested to learn how Taib and his own family are planning to make billions for themselves out of the hydro-electric dam, based on an investment of just RM2.00!

We can reveal that SALCO (Sarawak Aluminium Company Sdn Bhd), the company that has been handed a licence to build a vast smelter in Simalaju, powered by cheap electricity from the dam, is secretively entirely owned by the Taib family company, CMS.

So far, they have only issued two shares for the company, worth a mere one ringgit each!

Scandalous SALCO scam!

Controlling interest - SALCO is run out of the Taib building, Wisma Mahmud

Our revelation sheds light on a classic money-making scam, that is still in its early stages for the Chief Minister, but where the planned outcome is plain to see.

It depends on a blatant willingness by Taib to abuse his political influence, in order to divert public money into his own pocket.

At the centre of the ploy, is the company Sarawak Aluminium Company Sdn Bhd, which has always been officially presented as a ‘Joint Venture’  between the giant multinational, Rio Tinto Alcan and CMS, after the two companies signed a so-called Heads of Agreement in 2007 to explore the possibility of investing in the smelter project.

Government support - invaluable for a company with just RM2.00 investment!

In 2008 this supposed joint venture received a manufacturing licence from the Malaysian Federal Government’s Industrial Development Authority and it also established a Memorandum of Understanding to open negotiations with Sarawak’s energy authority, SEB, over access to the electricity.

Ever since, the planned SALCO aluminium smelter has been placed at the top of Taib’s proclaimed SCORE agenda for developing the potential of the Bakun Dam.

SALCO - is this really who we are?

And, whenever the project is referred to, whether in press releases, statements by ministers, interviews by CMS executives or, indeed, on SALCO’s own website (above) it has always been clearly suggested that the company is 60% owned by Rio Tinto and 40% owned by CMS.

Likewise, the licences and agreements granted by government agencies have further implied that SALCO represents a serious joint financial investment backed by the multi-national.

Heads of agreement between Rio Tinto and CMS's Richard Curtis - with Chief Minister (and Chief Shareholder) Taib Mahmud centre stage in a deal designed to net him a fortune!

However, our company research reveals that in fact SALCO consists of just two shares, issued for a mere one ringgit each, both owned  by a company called Samalaju Aluminium Industries Sdn Bhd.

Just two shares at one ringgit each

We can further demonstrate that this Samalaju Aluminium Industries Sdn Bhd is in turn entirely owned by another company named Samalaju Industries Sdn Bhd.

Samalaju Aluminium Industries Sdn Bhd is owned by Samalaju Industries Sdn Bhd

… and this Samalaju Industries Sdn Bhd is 100% owned by CMS!

One ringgit per share

Earlier this week a spokesman for Rio Tinto Alcan in the company’s Montreal headquarters conceded to Sarawak Report that as yet the multi-national has no direct investment in Sarawak:

“There is not much news to report in terms of the Joint Venture”, he said and he stressed that the aluminium manufacturing giant would not buy into the SALCO project “unless the price is right” for the electricity:

“We are actively participating in the negotiations for the power purchase agreement for the feasibility studies to commence”[RTA spokesman]

Since the Taib family company CMS has itself no credentials as an aluminium manufacturer it seems extraordinary that the State of Sarawak and Federal authorities have nevertheless given its 100% subsidiary SALCO the licence and go ahead to start manufacturing!

For Taib and his family side-kick Robert Geneid this 'important meeting' had a personal significance. If they can flog 60% of SALCO to RTS they should make billions of ringgit.

However, for CMS there is all to play for. The RTA spokesman confirmed to Sarawak Report that the multi-national is indeed interested in the proposed 60% stake in SALCO, as long as it can negotiate the large amounts of cheap electricity it wants.

Given that, as predicted, the Bakun Dam has created a glut of electricity in the state, even with just two of its eight turbines in action, and given there are few other customers in sight, it is likely to succeed.

This means that the stage is now set for Rio Tinto Alcan to buy over a 60% stake in SALCO!  Its the deal that Taib and his latest top family side-kick Robert Geneid have been frantically trying to pull together, holding ‘important meetings’ (Borneo Post) with Rio Tinto in Kuching just last month.

Who wins?

Promoting SALCO - so much political support!

Think of the potential profit for the main shareholders of CMS, if Rio Tinto Alcan moves in to take a 60% stake of this giant aluminium smelter project!

These shareholders, of course, are firstly Taib’s own long dead wife Laila, followed by his four children.

In total, as has been detailed many times on this site, the Taib family own at least half the company and all the top management positions – so plenty of bonus opportunities there as well!

Remember, Taib has so far invested just RM2.00.  Yet this factory is expected to absorb an enormous RM7billion in construction costs and it is then expected to produce at least 550,000 tons of aluminium a year, worth an annual RM2.4billion to Malaysian GDP. This could be extended to a full capacity of 1.5 million tons! [Rio Tinto Alcan press information]

Getting in there - Australia has been happy to promote Rio Tinto's bid to work with Taib in Sarawak

So, why would CMS, with such a project under its control, hand over 60% of it to Rio Tinto Alcan for less than a commensurate price?

In fact, once a nice cheap electricity deal has been cut with SEB (run by Taib’s cousin and proxy Hamed Sepawi), CMS will be in a position to make a fat multi-billion ringgit profit out of their tiny two ringgit investment in SALCO!

And, further down the line, consider what a 40% stake in such a venture would be worth should Taib and his family eventually decide to sell it off!  They could even decide to cash in early and sell off their holding for a few billion up front – after all they only invested RM2.00!

Indeed, such RM2.00 companies have been the method by which corrupt politicians in Malaysia have exploited their positions for years, passing huge contracts and concessions into these empty shells, so that they can then be sold or the work sub-contracted to a real working concern.

But, this project is on a scale of its own!  The question is, why does Rio Tinto Alcan, a supposedly respectable multi-national, think it is appropriate to become involved?

Off repeated lie - "we are a joint venture between RTA and CMS"!

The losers

The losers are just as easy to identify.  To start with, Taib failed to tender the project, so the State of Sarawak stands to get no realistic premium from the licence.  Likewise, with the rock bottom price for the hydro electricity, SEB is likely to make very little with which to improve its services and infrastructure.

As usual, other construction companies have found themselves squeezed out of the opportunity, but will probably end up sub-contracting for CMS.

Then consider the Civil Service pension funds, which were forced by ministers to invest billions in the Bakun Dam project to keep it afloat, because private investors were too wary.  The promise of rock bottom prices for the resulting hydro-power does not provide much prospect of any reasonable return on that investment, which means civil service pensioners will lose out!

Noxious - the Pressmetal plant in Mukah has provided no jobs for the locals, but it has taken their land and poisoned their fields and their health

And what of the local people in the area?  They are already living in terror of the arrival of the plant, because of the worrying levels of pollution already being experienced by the people of Mukah, who are affected by the existing Pressmetal aluminium plant.

Aluminium manufacturing can be a highly toxic process, unless carefully managed, and the people of Mukah, who have of course lost much of their NCR land to the plant that now looms over them, are suffering health problems and their plants are dying.

And what about the possibility of jobs for such people?  Well, unfortunately, it appears they are not suitable.  Rio Tinto Alcan has announced a projected 4,700 jobs on the plant, however none of the local people have managed to find employment at Pressmetal.

Instead, Taib has already made clear in his announcements that he plans to import tens of thousands of foreigners from places like India to work in his SCORE projects.  Doubtless these immigrants will be given houses, identity cards and voting rights, all of which so many local people find hard to obtain.

Just days ago the Australian High Commissioner was over in Kuching promoting Rio Tinto Alcan's involvement in SCORE. He is supporting Australian big businesses venture with the Taib family, but what will it mean for jobs back in Tasmania's aluminium plant which Rio Tinto is planning to shut?

Doubtless, they will be expected to vote BN in return!

Finally, what about the workers in existing Rio Tinto Alcan plants in places like Tasmania?

Rio Tinto Alcan have in fact just signalled that they are interested in selling off their Tasmania plant, presumably because they have a cheaper option elsewhere!

Rio Tinto Alcan and its Corporate Social Responsibility

RTA spokesmen have made plain that they have yet to move to the stage of feasibility studies and environmental and social impact assessments for this Simalaju smelter project.

However, they can be under no illusion that in conducting prospective business with CMS they are proposing to enter into a joint venture partnership with one of the world’s most notoriously corrupted and politically exposed companies.

Taib stands to make billions (as usual), but what is in this project for local people?

Taib Mahmud himself is being formally investigated by his own federal government’s anti-corruption commission (MACC).  And countries all over the globe have confirmed that they are looking into the assets of Taib and his family, with respect to money laundering!

So, what on earth do Rio Tinto Alcan think they are doing even considering entering into such a deal with a company that is blatantly owned by Taib?

Of course, they stand to make a fortune for their shareholders if they are able to swing a ludicrously cheap deal for their electricity and to set up in a country like Sarawak, which has no carbon taxes and low standards of supervision on matters like the environment and labour matters.

But these days shareholders also expect certain basic ethical standards.  Do they include doing business with corrupt companies personally owned by Chief Minister of the state in which they are investing?

Is this what Rio Tinto Alcan mean by the statement:

“We respect the laws and customs of our host countries and communities. We work with them to ensure benefits and opportunities are shared”?

To the contrary, the Bakun Dam and the whole planned string of future dams and SCORE related projects that are now being rolled out in Sarawak, represent nothing less than a human and environmental disaster in one of the world’s last remaining great tropical rainforests.

What's in store? A Rio Tinto Alcan factory in Canada

The driving motivation behind this project is the desire by Taib Mahmud and relatives like his brother in law Robert Geneid (who now features as a key negotiator in the SALCO ‘joint venture’ project) to become personally even richer.

So, is it right for companies like Rio Tinto Alcan to threaten to pull out of established locations like Tasmania in order to get involved with a man like Taib in a place like Sarawak?

Source: http://www.sarawakreport.org/2012/02/scandal-of-salco-how-taib-plans-to-make-billions-from-bakun/