BAJ expects higher profit

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed integrated tapioca producer PT Budi Acid Jaya (BAJ) is expecting a 30 percent increase in its gross profit this year, the company said yesterday.

BAJ's corporate secretary, Mawarti, said the projected profit increase was partly due to the high increase of its profit margins.

She said the gross profit margin rose 40 percent in the first three months of this year and that the upward trend would likely continue in the coming months.

PT Budi Acid Jaya, founded in 1979, produces citric acid, sulfuric acid, tapioca flour and poly propylene woven bag.

Mawarti said that BAJ had recently signed an agreement with Taiwan investors to build a monosodium glutamate plant in Lampung, which would export 60 percent of its production to Taiwan. (gis)