KUCHING: Press Metal’s new Phase 3 smelting plant in Samalaju Industrial Park, Bintulu was slightly damaged in a fire early Saturday morning.
The fire damaged only one out of the total 300 smelting pots in the plant, said Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd on Monday.
The company said the fire, which broke out at 4.30am, was extinguished within 20 minutes and that no one was harmed.
“Operations in Phase 3 were restored within several hours. There was minimal interruption and the installation ramp-up of our smelting line in Phase 3 will re-commence immediately after the damaged pot is repaired within the next few days.
“There is no material financial and operational impact arising from this incident as the operations in Phase 3 were restored within several hours and all assets are adequately covered by insurance,” it added in a filing with Bursa Malaysia.
The Phase 3 smelter, which belongs to 80%-owned subsidiary Press Metal Bintulu Sdn Bhd, is currently under commissioning.
The new smelter increases Press Metal group’s smelting capacity to 1.08 million tonnes per annum from 760,000 tonnes per annum, making the group the largest integrated aluminium producer in South East Asia.
According to Press Metal group chief executive officer (CEO) Tan Sri Paul Koon, recently, the Phase 3 smelter is expected to operate at full capacity in the second half of this year.
Press Metal said the operations under Phase 1 and 2 smelters were uninterrupted and running as normal. The group’s other smelting plant is in Mukah.
Sarawak Fire Department director Khirudin Drahman, speaking further on the incident last Saturday, said the department was not alerted of the incident as the extinguishing works had been handled by the plant’s emergency response team (ERT) and employees.
“Their (ERT) team’s active and passive firefighting elements managed to act swiftly to put out the fire before it turned into a tragedy,” he said
In 2015, a fire hit Press Metal’s smelting plant in Samalaju, forcing it to shut down temporarily after some smelting pots were damaged.
