ASIA WATER IN BRIEF

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Shares in Thai bulk water supplier Eastern Water Resources closed at a new high of THB13.20 immediately before GWI went to press – a record peak since the company listed in Bangkok in 1997.

  • Investors were cheered by the company’s big investment plans (THB4.1 billion ($131 million) over four years) and prospects for tariff increases for its customers.
  • Fellow Bangkok-listed company Thai Tap Water, meanwhile, is thirsting after a place on the exchange’s SET50 index, which includes the top companies by market cap. The drinking water supplier hopes this will help to attract more international investors. It expects revenue growth of 8% this year.
  • China’s coal-to-chemicals industry seems to be taking off, with 15 pilot projects approved in late August. Local sources estimate that these projects will need 3 million m3/d of water by 2015. The projects are mostly located in the arid north-west of the country, and will bring strong demand for water reuse/zero liquid discharge technologies.
  • Malaysian company Ranhill Utilities has announced four new projects in China, three of which are for industrial parks. The fourth is an urban water and wastewater supply project in the remote Ningxia Province in the west of the country.
  • Indonesia’s central government agency Bappenas has committed to realising the 78km pipeline project to supply water from the Jatiluhur reservoir to Jakarta and the neighbouring city of Bekasi by 2015. The $730 million project has been on the cards for years, but is complicated by the need for coordination among federal entities, Jakarta city and the West Java government. Japanese companies including Hitachi, Mitsubishi and Tokyo Suido Services are thought to be eyeing roles in the project.
  • Some local water utilities in Indonesia are considering withdrawing their plans for PPPs awarded through the “B2B” route because of a new regulation which will render them ineligible for the Ministry of Finance’s debt restructuring programme if they contract with a private company. Many of Indonesia’s water utilities are in default on loans for decades-old development projects, and the ministry has blocked their access to fresh funds.