Mustaqim Adamrah, Jakarta – Rounds of blackouts have hit numerous manufacturers operating in Greater Jakarta, with garment producers already incurring penalties due to delayed deliveries.
"It is harmful when blackouts affect manufacturers because their production and deliveries won't meet the scheduled time," Industry Minister and chairman of the Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin), Mohamad Suleman Hidayat, said Monday.
"Manufacturers may also lose opportunities to increase their production capacities if blackouts occur indefinitely."
Furthermore, manufacturers might also have their orders cancelled by their buyers, Hidayat said.
Businesses in Greater Jakarta have suffered from blackouts after a transformer at the Cawang power plant exploded on Sept. 29, straining the capacity of other power plants in the city.
Indonesian Textile Association (API) deputy chairman Ade Sudrajat said that more than 100 garment producers in Greater Jakarta had already felt the pinch from the blackouts, with operational costs soaring by more than 50 percent.
"Without any announcements prior to the blackouts, we have to spend more on operational costs for our laborers working overtime," Ade told The Jakarta Post.
Ade said indefinite blackouts put employers in a quandary over whether to tell their workers to wait or to send them home.
"For sure, these workers will demand we pay them one way or another," he said. "There are some companies that have even paid penalties because of delayed exports [thanks to the blackouts]," he said, stressing the affected manufacturers could end up "shutting down".
Likewise, PT Astra Daihatsu Motor marketing director Amelia Tjandra said her company had to pay more for workers due to the blackouts.
"If a blackout occurs, say, on Thursday, we have to send our workers home, and they have to work later on Saturday, or on Sunday [to compensate]," she said. "Consequently, we have to pay overtime allowances calculated on hourly base and meal allowances to our employees working overtime."
Indonesian Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (GP Farmasi) chairman, Anthony Charles Sunarjo, said pharmaceutical companies operating in Jakarta also had to spend more on operational costs because they had to use their diesel-powered generators during blackouts.
Most pharmaceutical companies used power from both PLN and their own generators, he said. "A pharmaceutical factory works like a hospital; it cannot stop when an operation is being carried out even if there is a blackout," he told the Post.
However, he said he did not know to what extent blackouts had affected the operational costs of pharmaceutical companies.
PLN general manager of the Java-Bali load control center and distribution, Nur Pamudji, said earlier that his office had planned a project worth Rp 5.6 trillion (US$593.6 million) to procure eight power transformers, to strengthen the city's electricity by 2012.