Astra Agro plans Rp 600b investment

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