Astra Agro to plant new palm trees

Astra Agro to plant new palm trees

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With third quarter profits more than double the same period last
year, crude palm oil (CPO) producer PT Astra Agro Lestari (AALI)
is confident about its plans next year of intensifying its
plantations to further boost production.

In a public presentation of the company's third quarter
performance on Thursday, vice president Benny Tjoeng also
mentioned that the company has planned to share the year's
profits with investors by providing a dividend of Rp 100 (1 U.S.
cent) per share.

AALI is 64 percent controlled by listed automotive company PT
Astra International.

The company has reported a third quarter net profit of Rp
664.7 billion (US$72.8 million), compared to last year's Rp 188.8
billion. Total assets grew 32.3 percent, from Rp 2.6 trillion to
Rp 3.5 trillion.

Benny explained that the company would spend up to Rp 350
billion to plant new palm trees in its 16,500 hectares of unused
land, as well as upgrade its mills and roads.

The move is expected to boost production by 10 percent to 15
percent next year to 750,000 tons. In the third quarter ending
September, the company's CPO output reached 574,816 tons, up 30.6
percent from the same period last year.

"We expect to be able to boost our Golden CPO production as
well," he said. Golden CPO is the company's high-quality CPO,
containing less than 2 percent of free fatty acid (FFA).

Astra Agro's CPO export volume during the period has more than
doubled from 261,783 tons to 107,455 tons. Sales of its Cap
Sendok brand cooking oil also jumped by 38.6 percent to 12,243
tons.

"We also plan to intensify some 40,000 hectares of our
existing plantations so they can be planted with 126 trees per
hectare, and replant 4,500 hectares of our aged palm trees," he
said.

The company, however, said it had no plans to acquire new
plantation areas. AALI is the largest CPO producer in the country
controlling some 205,000 ha of plantation areas in Sumatra,
Kalimantan and Sulawesi.

Its production accounts for some 8 percent of the country's
total 2004 production, which is predicted to reach 10.4 million
tons, higher than last year's 9.9 million tons. Indonesia is the
second largest CPO producer after Malaysia.