GEMAS April 7 - The wood sector is one of the most
energy intensive sectors in the Malaysian industries, Energy,
Communications and Multimedia minister, Datuk Amar Leo Moggie
said Monday.He
said there were more than 5,000 wood processing mills in
the country.
"With the recent pressures on fuel price around the
world and with the international crisis involving Iraq,
this volume of consumption translates into millions of ringgit
annually.
"Based on recent developments, prices of fuel are going
up slowly but steadily and while the government is sensitive
to the impact on consumers, it will be hard to keep prices
down if international oil price continues to increase,"
he said at the signing ceremony of the Master Energy Services
Agreement (MESA) between Heveaboard Sdn Bhd and Mensilin
Holdings Sdn Bhd at the Heveaboard factory near here, Monday.
His
speech was read by the ministry's secretary-general, Datuk
Dr Halim Shafie.
Heveaboard Sdn Bhd was represented by its chairman, Tan
Sri Mohamed Rahmat, while Mensilin Holdings by its executive
director, Mohamad Adan Yusof.
The
signing ceremony was witnessed by Halim and resident representative
of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Dr Maxine
Olson.
Moggie
said the wood industry had seen its share of market competition
and within this region China and Vietnam were among the
close competitors which made it much more challenging for
the industry to sustain its export markets.
Furthermore,
he said once the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) rules and
tariffs were enforced, it would present another form of
challenge to the local industries to ensure their competitiveness.
Presently, not many Malaysians industries are inclined towards
practising energy efficiency and they do not see that it
can help reduce their operations costs thereby making their
products more competitive.
In
reality, the savings that can be achieved through efficient
use of energy. These savings can then be channelled into
other product development activities and this can have an
immense impact on the overall competitiveness of a factory,
he said.
Moggie
said in 2001, 37.6 percent of final energy was used by the
industrial sector and so far 24 factories had been audited
under the Malaysian Industrial Energy Efficiency Improvement
Project (MIEEIP) programme. The RM2 million project, to
replace an oil-fired boiler with a biomass-based boiler,
will be carried out in partnership with an energy service
company (ESCO), Mensilin Holdings Sdn Bhd.
The project is designed to produce enormous savings in oil-based
energy consumption and will subsequently reduce the company's
fuel bill by 90 percent.
MESA
was developed by the MIEEIP and is the first of its kind
in Malaysia to assist ESCO and other industries in the implementation
of energy efficiency activities.
The
MIEEIP is funded by the UNDP, the Global Environment Facility
(GEF), the government of Malaysia and the private sector.
Under
the cooperation, Mensilin which undertakes the financial,
technical and performance risks of the project will guarantee
the savings consumption and costs. Loan repayments will
be made from the savings achieved.
Heveaboard
will guarantee a minimum production level to secure the
monthly savings.
Both parties have agreed to share the savings and Heveaboard
will own the equipment at the end of the contract period
without any investment from the factory.
Mohamed
Rahmat in his speech said he hoped that energy saving programmes
would become a regular feature in the industrial sector
in Malaysia.
"I
also hope that such improvements will spur our production
and financial performance to record highs," he added.
Source:
Utusan Online
Mieeip
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