DBS Bank has provided a structured trade facility to Chandra Asri, Indonesia’s largest integrated petrochemical producer, to support the company’s efforts to boost export sales.

The US$60mn short-term credit line is made up of both pre-shipment and post-shipment finance, which Tan Su Shan, group head of institutional banking at DBS, says will give the company the ability to “obtain, scale and diversify access to competitive financing”, as well as bolster the country’s balance of payments amid a new government drive to cut raw material imports in favour of local industries.

At the end of last year, the petrochemical firm, which currently operates Indonesia’s only naphtha cracker, brought online a further two chemical plants, producing methyl tert-butyl ether and 1-butene. Chandra Asri says it will use the financing to vertically integrate its operations, expand sales of its products and open up new international trade opportunities.

This facility is the latest signed between DBS and Chandra Asri. In July last year, the Singaporean bank provided the company with a US$195mn trade financing and revolving credit facility to enable it to survive pandemic-related cash pressures. The company used that funding to cover working capital needs amid an uptick in demand for its raw materials as inputs for medical equipment such as masks and personal protective equipment.