PT Astra's palm oil output may rise 13%<\/p>\n
Claire Leow, Bloomberg\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
PT Astra Agro Lestari, Indonesia's largest publicly traded
\nplantation company, expects crude palm oil production to rise 13
\npercent this year, helped by higher yield, Vice President-
\nDirector Benny Tjoeng said today.<\/p>\n
Palm oil output rose 8.3 percent to 622,396 metric tons in the
\nnine months ended Sept. 30, the Jakarta-based company said Oct.
\n13. Astra produced 721,085 tons of the commodity last year.<\/p>\n
Higher sales may help Astro Agro partly offset higher costs of
\nfertilizers and transport, expected to rise 15 percent this year,
\nafter the government reduced fuel subsidies starting Oct. 1,
\nTjoeng said in an interview. Fertilizers and transport costs,
\nwhich account for one-fifth of the total expenses, will probably
\nrise another 30 percent in 2006, he said.<\/p>\n
\"Oil palms are more mature so they are more productive, we
\nhave better estate management and plantations were 100 percent
\nfertilized last year,\" Tjoeng said. Yields this year will rise to
\n4 metric tons of palm oil per hectare from 3.6 tons last year.<\/p>\n
Last year, road improvements at plantations allowed Astro Agro
\nto transport more fruit bunches to its mills, lifting sales
\noutput by 28 percent to 721,085 tons. Its 2004 net income almost
\ntripled to Rp 801 billion (US$79 million).<\/p>\n
Astra Agro, a unit of Indonesia's largest automaker PT Astra
\nInternational, will report earnings next week, Tjoeng said.
\nIndonesia is the world's biggest oil-palm grower after Malaysia.<\/p>",
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