No one harmed in fire at press metal's phase 3 smelter, operations restored

KUALA LUMPUR: Press Metal Aluminium Holdings Bhd said today that a fire that occurred on Saturday at the new Phase 3 smelter belonging to its 80 per cent-owned subsidiary, Press Metal Bintulu Sdn Bhd at the Samalaju Industrial Park, Bintulu, Sarawak has not caused any harm.

The blaze took place at about 4.30am on Saturday.

"This smelter is currently under commissioning and the incident damaged one smelting pot out of a total of 300 smelting pots in the plant.

"Operations in our Phase 1 and 2 smelters are uninterrupted and running as normal. The fire was extinguished within 20 minutes and the incident did not cause any harm to any persons. Operations in Phase 3 were restored within several hours," it said in a statement here, today.

Press Metal said there was a minimal interruption and the installation ramp-up of its smelting line in Phase 3 will re-commenced immediately after the damaged pot was 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.

-- BERNAMA