World Grain - December 2014 - 28

FEATURE: THE EASTERN PEARL OF INDONESIA

Interflour will continue to expand with new mill in the Philippines
Not content with an extensive range of Southeast Asian mills
and support infrastructure, Singapore-based Interflour Group announced in July that it would build a new flour mill in the Philippines.
The company has signed a 50-year lease on a 52,852-squaremeter lot inside Subic Bay Gateway Park, part of a designated
free trade zone within the former Subic Bay U.S. military base
which is being redeveloped as a logistics and industrial hub. As
well as being within easy reach of the capital city of Manila's
vast population of consumers, the mill will be located just 2
kilometers from Subic's deep water berths.
Registered under the business name Mabuhay Interflour Mill
Inc. and due to open in 2016, the $30-million mill will receive imported wheat as bulk which will be processed and distributed nationally to end consumers, distributors and retailers. The mill will
boast the capacity to produce 500 tonnes of flour per day with
the option to double output by 2019, depending on demand.
The Subic unit will feature 30,000 tonnes of vertical silo storage capacity and equipment supplied by Turkish supplier Alapala, which Interflour is also using for its expansion into Malaysia.
Interflour, which is owned 50/50 by Australian growers cooperative the CBH Group and a consortium of Chinese investors,
already operates seven mills and a slew of ports and malting
plants in Southeast Asia as well as a Turkish flour mill. Comup to Handysize alongside its 9.6-meter
draft berth and can lighter larger vessels at anchorage. "Typically we use
Handysize vessels ex-Australia and
West or Black Sea with multi-port discharge at Port Klang, Cai Mep and
Makassar," said Trim.
"We have two MIAG loader/unloaders at either end of the berth and one
is discharged using all three unloaders. Wheat bran pellets or transhipment wheat is loaded using the MIAG
units. WBP is typically loaded into
6,000 +/-10% sized coastal vessels
and is sold into both domestic and export markets."
EPFM is also adjacent to a container
facility which offers an array of shipping options for onward distribution of
cartons and bags by box.
"Most mills have lots of land transport
and serve local markets, but we have a very
different set-up," said Trim. "We have a
good hinterland in southern Sulawesi, but
80 to 85 percent of product is now shipped
28

bined, the company has total annual milling capacity of around
1.5 million tonnes at present, but Greg Harvey, managing director and chief executive, has long-standing plans to expand
output to 10,000 tonnes per day by 2017.
He said the new Subic mill would enable Interflour to leverage
its existing wheat procurement and freight programs into Southeast Asia to be price competitive in the Philippines market where
the company already has a core market base in quality flour.
"We have been exporting to the Philippines for many years
and we are especially well established in the bread market,"
he said.
Research by Interflour (see graph and please source to Interflour) suggests that flour consumption in the Philippines will
grow by 7.1% CAGR from 2010-2020. Current domestic industry
capacity utilization is 60% and is forecast to rise to 80% by 2020,
leaving ample space for new capacity, according to Harvey.
"Our view is that when an industry hits about 70 percent utilization, then that stimulates industry expansion," he said. "We
watch closely in all markets and try to get ahead of the curve."
Harvey said Subic would not be the last of Interflour's investments in Southeast Asia. "We continue to see opportunities for
potential acquisitions as the industry starts to consolidate in
Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam," he added.

in containers around Indonesia.
"We use 20-foot containers. The economics of moving 40-foot boxes doesn't
work out due to weight restrictions,
which means that even with all the extra
space we can still only carry 26.5 tonnes,
compared to 23.5 tonnes in a 20-footer."
According to Trim, the economics of

container distribution out of Makassar
have changed rapidly in recent years.
vessels for distribution around the islands," he said. "Each ship could take
200 to 400 tonnes but, as infrastructure
has improved, ports have been dredged

An Eastern Pearl Flour Mills employee works in the bagging section of the facility.
December 2014 / World Grain / www.World-Grain.com

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World Grain - December 2014

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