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