Bukit Asam H1's net profit rises by 52%

Leony Aurora, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Publicly listed state coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) has announced an increase of 52 percent in its unaudited consolidated net profit to Rp 170.63 billion (US$17.41 million) in the first half of the year on stronger prices.

Net profit for the first six months of last year stood at Rp 112.39 billion, the company said in an e-mailed statement on Friday.

"The increasing net profit was due to higher prices of coal sold to PT Indonesia Power and the export market," PTBA's corporate secretary Milawarma said in the statement.

He did not elaborate on the prices.

Revenues rose by 18 percent in the six months ending on June 30 to Rp 1.32 trillion from Rp 1.12 trillion recorded in the corresponding period the previous year, although coal sales increased by a mere 3 percent to 4.59 million tons from 4.47 million tons in the respective periods.

Some 77 percent of the coal was supplied to the domestic market, while the rest was exported. The amount of coal sold overseas declined slightly due to a temporary limitation on the size of coal-transporting ships to neighboring Malaysia.

The restriction has been lifted.

Production costs increased as mining fees rose by about 11 percent due to the weakening rupiah against the U.S. dollar and higher train fees.

Operating mines in West and South Sumatra, PTBA has coal resources of about 7.36 billion tons -- or about 17 percent of the country's total coal deposits -- with total reserves of 1.47 billion tons.

PTBA, the fifth-largest coal producer in the country, mined 9.9 million tons of coal in 2004. The company aims to raise production to 10.2 million this year.

At present, the government controls 65 percent of shares in Bukit Asam, which mines about one-tenth of the country's coal output, with private shareholders owning the remainder.

PTBA's share ended unchanged at Rp 1,570 on Friday.