TSM to invest RM500 million to develop silica industry in Mercang
16 May 2023
Trg Silica (Marang) Bhd (TSM) will be investing RM500 million to develop ultra purity silica and cristobalite production industry in Mercang.
Terengganu Silica Consortium Sdn Bhd group chairman Datuk Seri Tengku Baharuddin Sultan Mahmud said the 1,000-hectare project is the first in Asia and involved a five-year investment period.
He said the first phase of the project, scheduled to be completed in 2024, is expected to produce ultra purity silica products at a capacity of 2.6 million tonnes for domestic and international downstream industries.
“The investment of RM500 million for the first phase also involves the construction of a terminal for the delivery of products abroad including Korea, Taiwan and China.
“This is because the products we produce are the purest and to guarantee the quality, they cannot be sent abroad through other ports,” he said in a press conference after the project’s ground-breaking ceremony in Kampung Jambu Bongkok, Mercang here today.
The event was officiated by the Sultan of Terengganu Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin and was also attended by Terengganu Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar and Terengganu Silica Consortium chief executive officer N Surendran.
Tengku Baharuddin said the development of the project would also open up 250 job opportunities for local people.
He said TSM also worked with the Ministry of Investment, Trade and Industry (MITI) and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority (MIDA) to promote and encourage more foreign investment in the downstream sector, particularly in Terengganu.
“Ultra purity silica and cristobalite are the main compositions for the production of advanced technology downstream glass industry products such as engineered stone, glass ceramic, ophthalmic glass which have high resistance to heat and so on.
“TSM will be the catalyst for foreign direct investment (FDI) through the existence of silica downstream industries such as mobile phone glass, television and so on in Terengganu and Malaysia,” he said.
Additionally, he said TSM also collaborated with several countries including Germany, Belgium and Japan to obtain related expertise and artificial intelligence (AI) applications.
“This is to produce the highest quality products. In fact, the company is also trying to achieve the ‘net carbon emissions’ target through this project,” he added.
Source: Bernama
