Astra Agro's CPO output rises 4.1%

Astra Agro's CPO output rises 4.1%

JAKARTA: Weathering the current dry spell, Indonesia's plantation company PT Astra Agro Lestari's crude palm oil production rose 4.1 percent to 289,188 metric tons in the first seven months of the year from 277,802 tons a year ago, the company said Tuesday.

The increase was due mainly to an improvement in the CPO extracting rate to 23.1 percent from 22.2 percent as well as a 4.3 percent increase in oil palm production to 1.23 million tons from 1.18 million tons, the company said.

The company is the plantation unit of PT Astra International Indonesia. -- Dow Jones

;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-HK-PCCW JP/14/Brief

PCCW to slash wages, lay off staff

HONG KONG: Hong Kong's largest telephone company PCCW Ltd. is planning to reduce employee wages by five to 30 percent from Oct. 1, the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily reported Monday.

The paper, citing a labor union website, also said PCCW was planning to cut 500 mid-level management jobs from the same date.

PCCW, formerly known as Pacific Century CyberWorks Ltd., announced in March that it was laying off 858 employees, and had warned of further possible job cuts to stay competitive.

The move to lay off the 858 employees, about six percent of its 14,080 workforce, had been necessary to "achieve essential efficiencies in our operational structure," PCCW chairman Richard Li said in a letter distributed to staff at the time.

PCCW posted a HK$$1.89 billion (US$243 million) profit for 2001, a substantial improvement on its HK$6.9 billion loss a year earlier. -- AFP ;Agencies; ANPAf..r.. CorporateBrief-HK-China-LNG JP/14/Brief

HK could buy a third of China LNG

BEIJING: Hong Kong could buy a third of the liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplied to south China by an Australian consortium under a multi-billion dollar deal announced last week, state press said Tuesday.

Hong Kong is expected to use a million tons of gas a year from the mainland's first LNG terminal to be built in Guangdong province, adjoining Hong Kong, a state energy firm official told the China Daily.

The remaining two-thirds of the LNG would be used in the booming southern province, said Mark Qiu, chief financial officer of the China National Offshore Oil Co. (CNOOC).

CNOOC last week picked ALNG, a consortium led by Australian energy giant Woodside Petroleum Ltd., for a 25-year deal worth up to US$13.5 billion to supply the initial phase of the Guangdong LNG terminal. -- AFP