Aneka Tambang's profit jumps 950% on rupiah's sharp fall

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed state mining company PT Aneka Tambang saw its net profit jump 950 percent to Rp 251.81 billion (US$18 million) in the first half of this year due to the rupiah's collapse against the U.S. dollar, the company announced yesterday.

"The windfall profit was mostly caused by the fall in the rupiah's value against the dollar," company operations director Harsojo Dihardjo told a news conference.

Aneka Tambang is an export-oriented company with various products, including ferronickel, gold, silver, bauxite and iron sand. Ferronickel contributes 75 percent of its earnings. Most of the products are sold overseas.

Harsojo said the average exchange rate for the rupiah was Rp 9,666 per dollar in the first half of the year, compared to Rp 2,402 in the first half of last year, when the profit was Rp 24 billion.

He said prices of the company's products, except for silver and iron ore, had actually plummeted on the international market in the first half of the year.

The sales volume of most products was also down but the sales increased 306 percent to Rp 519.8 billion in the first half of the year from Rp 169.6 in the January/June period last year, due to the dollar's sharp appreciation against the rupiah, Harsojo said.

He said Aneka Tambang's gold sales rose to 1,041 kilograms in the first semester from 852 kg in the same period of last year.

About 82.5 percent of the gold sales volume was exported during the January/June period, last year, he said, adding that in that time gold exports accounted for only 14 percent of the total sales volume.

"We have exported more this year due to the weak domestic demand," he said.

Aneka Tambang's ferronickel output rose to 4,744 metric tons in the first half of the year from 4,570 in the same period of last year. Gold output reached 909 kg in the first half of the year, almost equal with the gold output of 911 kg in the same period of last year.

Aneka Tambang produces ferronickel in Pomalaa, South East Sulawesi and gold in Pongkor, West Java.

It is one of the 12 companies that the government has planned to partially privatize to raise $1.5 billion for the state coffers.

Harsojo said five foreign companies were interested in buying a government stake in the company, but the company and the government had yet to choose which to sell to.

"The interested companies are among our current partners," Harsojo said without elaborating.

Shares in Aneka Tambang have risen sharply in recent weeks on the back of speculation that the government has found a buyer for its stake.

Harsojo said Aneka Tambang, which is listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange, received the green light from the government, which owns 65 percent of the company, to also list overseas.

Company director of development Subagyo said the company would invest Rp 239 billion to build its third ferronickel plant, also in Pomalaa and with an annual production capacity of 13,000 tons, starting next year.

Five companies from Germany, Japan, the United States, Norway and Britain are bidding to develop and finance the project, he said.

Operation of the third plant will bring the company's ferronickel output to 24,000 tons a year in 2001 from about 9,000 tons a year at present, he said. (jsk)