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  Business Times 3 Jul 07
Tuas Power diversifies into waste sector
It invests $10m for 60% stake in joint venture with Beng Kuang Marine
By Ronnie Lim

TUAS Power - one of the big three power generation companies being divested by Temasek Holdings - is further diversifying into waste management to provide a total services package to its customers, including pharmaceutical plants to which it is already providing in-house trigeneration plants.

It has just invested S$10 million for a 60 per cent stake in a new joint venture - NewEarth Pte Ltd - with Sesdaq-listed Beng Kuang Marine (BKM) which has patented technology to transform industrial waste like heavy metals into building bricks, paving blocks and synthetic aggregates.

NewEarth will invest an initial $25 million in a new pioneer plant in Tuas for this. Tuas Power (TP), estimated to be worth over US$2 billion, is entering this 'focused niche' in recycling and conservation to cater to its pharmaceutical customers which need treatment of their waste like contaminated heavy metals and solvents, Ben Lau, TP's vice-president (business development) told BT. Currently, the waste is incinerated.

TP is already in a separate JV with Indonesian gas importer Gas Supply Pte Ltd to supply small to medium-sized trigeneration units - producing electricity, steam and cooling water - to companies like Schering Plough and Pfizer in Tuas.

So its latest waste management JV with WET, a subsidiary of BKM, will complete the package, he said.

'While waste management is a non-core business for us, the latest JV resulted from our listening to our customers,' Mr Lau said.

TP has been looking for such waste management technology for a while, and it was approached by BKM which has the patented 'crystallisation' technology and which has developed a pilot plant to transform the waste into environmentally safe products that can be used in construction, reclamation and road building.

NewEarth is now looking to build its first commercial plant in Tuas, with construction expected to start in the fourth quarter. Costing an estimated $25 million, the medium-sized plant, which is expected to start operation in Q4 next year, will be able to process about 10,000 tonnes of waste materials monthly.

'Longer term, we plan to scale up and build a second plant, the size of which will depend on market demand,' he said. Mr Chua Beng Kuang, managing director of BKM, said that 'currently, there is more than a million tonnes of industrial waste generated each year in Singapore.

Both TP and ourselves see immense potential in the environmental recycling business.'

NewEarth's products will help reduce disposal as landfill, as well as reduce reliance on imported raw materials such as sand and stones, especially after Indonesia's ban on sand exports, BKM said.
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