Adhesive producer reports profit increase

JAKARTA (JP): PT Duta Pertiwi Nusantara, a producer of formaldehyde and thermosetting adhesives for wood products, reported a 47.8 percent increase in its after-tax profit to Rp 6.72 billion (US$3.13 million) last year.

The company's president, Siang Hadi Widjaja, told reporters after the extraordinary and annual meetings of its shareholders here yesterday that the significant rise in profits was due to the increase in Indonesian plywood exports.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, the country's plywood exports increased last year by 2.9 percent in volume to 5.77 million tons over the previous year and by 30.6 percent in value to US$4.22 billion.

Widjaja said the company's unaudited after-tax profit during the first six months of this year was estimated at Rp 4 billion, while its sales reached Rp 17 billion.

He added that the company's total sales last year increased to Rp 36.57 billion from Rp 24.53 billion in 1992.

The company has a capacity to produce 50,000 tons of formaldehyde glue and 75,000 tons of urea formaldehyde, phenol formaldehyde and melamine formaldehyde adhesives per annum.

Widjaja said the company's shareholders approved its management's proposal to pay a cash dividend of Rp 75 per share from the 1993 profits. In 1992, the company paid a cash dividend of Rp 200 per share.

Calculated from the company's profits, its earning per share increased to Rp 267.10 last year from Rp 139.29 in 1992.

Widjaja said that for anticipation of the brighter market in the future, the company has recently set up a joint venture with Taiwan's Chang Chun Plastics Co. Ltd. to produce urea compound, melamine compound and dry and wet paper in Bekasi, West Java.

"The new venture is 25 percent owned by Duta Pertiwi Nusantara," Hadi Widjaja said, adding that the venture has a paid-up capital of $6 million. (fhp)