Indian utility Tata Power Co Ltd is considering building power plants in Southeast Asia and is looking at mines in Indonesia though rising coal prices is making acquisitions expensive, its managing director said Reuters reported from Mumbai.

Merrill Lynch has raised its forecasts for contract prices of coal for power plants and steel mills in 2008, predicting that prices will jump by as much as 200%, after recent supply disruptions resulted in a severe global shortage, Reuters reported Friday (7/3/08).

Indonesia is likely to have a maximum of 150 million tons of coal available for export in each of the next several years due to rising domestic demand, Jeffrey Mulyono, head of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association, said, Reuters reported Tuesday (4/3/08).

Construction of the 340-MW Sarulla geothermal power plant in Tapanuli, North Sumatra, will start in 2009, Asia Pulse reported Monday (3/3/08).First phase construction will be for a 110 MW capacity plant, said Hilmi Panigoro, president of PT Medci Energi Internasional, which owns the project jointly...

CDMA-based cellular operator PT Mobile-8 Telecom said Wednesday (5/3/08) its net profit last year rose 45.4% supported by stronger sales, Thomson Financial reported.The company posted net profit of Rp50.35 billion for 2007 compared to 34.64 billion a year earlier.Net sales surged 49.9% to Rp882.

The country's largest retailer, PT Matahari Putra Prima, said Tuesday (4/3/08) its net profit grew 12% in 2007, supported by stronger sales, Thomson Financial reported.Matahari booked net profit of Rp180.19 billion, against Rp160.50 billion in 2006.Sales rose to Rp9.8 trillion from Rp8.

Indofood Agri Resources Ltd (IndoAgri), a major subsidiary of food giant PT Indofood Sukses Makmur, reported a 59% increase in sales to Rp6.5 trillion ($715 million) in 2007 from Rp4.09 trillion in the previous year, Asia Pulse reported Tuesday (4/3/08).

State Enterprises Minister Sofyan Djalil said the government will complete the process of forming a holding company for 15 state plantation firms, including PT RNI, a state-owned sugar distribution firm, next month, Asia Pulse reported Thursday (6/3/08).

The country expects higher output of its key agriculture commodities rubber, coffee and cocoa in 2008, an official said on Wednesday (5/3/08), due to good weather and higher prices, which have led to more intensive farming, Reuters reported.Rubber output is expected to increase by 2.7% to 2.

US car maker General Motors Corp. (GMC) is set to restart its car manufacturing business in Indonesia using the facility it abandoned earlier, Asia Pulse reported Monday (3/3/08).The world's second largest car maker will produce special models to suit the Indonesian market, Mukita Sutikno, general...

A widening gap between Indonesian and US interest rates could help draw capital inflows to the country and strengthen the domestic currency, Bank Indonesia (BI) Senior Deputy Governor Miranda Goeltom said Wednesday (5/3/08), Dow Jones Newswires reported.

The annual inflation rate inched up in February to the highest level since late 2006 due to higher food prices, while the central bank decided to maintain its benchmark interest rate at 8%, Reuters reported.The consumer price index (CPI) in February rose 7.

The plantations sector performed well above expectations during 2007, and is expected to continue to boom through this year, according to a senior official of the Department of Agriculture.One major plantations firm, Singapore-listed Indofood Agri Resources Ltd (IndoAgri), reported a 59% increase...

Tuesday, 11 March, 2008 | 14:51 WIBTEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: PT Indosat, Tbk has been considering reducing post-paid tariffs rather than prepaid tariffs. The reason is because the post-paid customer is a more frequent user than prepaid ones.

To attract more foreign direct investment (FDI) from Japan, Indonesia needs to take a good look at what's happening in local markets.The reason is that motives make Japanese investors go overseas have shifted -- from a need for low production costs to an interest in the potential of local markets,...

The Indonesian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Kadin) expects the government's "one village one product" (OVOP) program to go ahead next year as planned, despite incomplete studies on core potentials and competencies of cited regions.