Antam May Drop Plan to Build Smelter With Rusal, Daily Reports

June 12 (Bloomberg) -- Indonesia’s PT Aneka Tambang may drop a plan to build a $2.4 billion smelter with Russia’s United Co. Rusal, the Investor Daily Indonesia newspaper said, citing Aneka’s Corporate Secretary Bimo Budi Satriyo. Antam, as the Indonesian company is known, may seek new partners after no progress on the project since the two companies signed an agreement in 2007 to build an alumina smelter, Satriyo was cited as saying. The so-called heads of agreement will expire next year, the report said. Rusal, the world’s biggest aluminum producer, and Antam in 2007 signed an accord to study the construction of a smelter in East Kalimantan. Rusal is renegotiating its debts following the collapse in commodities, stocks and the ruble in the past a year. The company yesterday said its creditors agreed to extend a so- called standstill agreement on $7.4 billion of debt. To contact the reporters on this story: Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net.