Astra Agro plans Rp 600b investment

Publicly listed PT Astra Agro Lestari, a plantation subsidiary of automotive kingpin PT Astra International, is planning to spend Rp 600 billion (US$61.8 million) next year on expanding output and increasing the number of its plants.

In a statement to the Jakarta Stock Exchange on Tuesday, the company said that 39.2 percent of the investment would be on setting up new processing plants, with the remaining 35.8 percent going on planting and 16.3 percent on infrastructure.

Next year's investment is 50 percent higher than the Rp 400 billion allocated this year.

Astra Agro also reported that its production of crude palm oil (CPO) rose by 11.2 percent to 776,761 tons between January and November this year from 698.819 tons in the same period last year following higher productivity in its plantations.

The company's output of fresh fruit bunches also rose by 13.4 percent to 3.20 million tons from 2.82 million tons previously due primarily to an improvement in the average yield from 15.4 tons to 17.3 tons per hectare.

Around 49.7 percent of the yields are derived from the company's plantations in Sumatra, 31.1 percent from Kalimantan and 19.2 percent from Sulawesi.

Higher CPO and rubber production contributed to a 19 percent increase in the country's non-oil and gas exports during the first 10 months of the year, the Central Statistics Agency reported.

Export of CPO and its derivatives were up by 11 percent between January and October to $3.9 billion from $3.5 billion in the same period last year due to higher global demand despite declining world prices.

Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, is the world's second largest CPO exporter after Malaysia. -- JP