Bukit Asam to raise production

JAKARTA (JP): State coal producer PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam will increase its production by 27 percent to 12.8 million tons this year, the company has said.

Company president RA Sunardi said Monday evening at a breaking of the fast gathering that the company would raise output this year to meet increasing demand from domestic and overseas markets.

The company will increase its exports to 2.8 million tons, or 22 percent of this year's projected output, from 1.9 million tons, or 18 percent of the output, in 1997.

The company exports coal to Japan, Malaysia and Thailand.

In the domestic market, the company expects an increase in demand this year from its largest buyer, PT Pembangkitan Listrik Jawa Bali I (PJB I), a subsidiary of state electricity company PLN, for its coal-fired Suralaya power plant in West Java.

The Suralaya power plant is the country's largest power plant with a power-generation capacity of 3,400 megawatts.

According to PJB I data, the Suralaya power plant will need 9.47 million tons of coal this year, up from 6.88 million tons last year.

Sunardi said Bukit Asam would also supply more coal to its power plant at the company's production base in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra, this year, but he did not specify when.

Bukit Asam used to be the country's largest coal producer, but PT Kaltim Prima Coal (KPC), owned by British companies British Petroleum and Rio Tinto, based in Sangatta. East Kalimantan, outpaced Bukit Asam with an output of 13.5 million tons last year.

Bukit Asam will remain behind KPC this year, as KPC plans to increase output to 15 million tons this year.

Sunardi said the monetary crisis affected the company's performance last year, since only 18 percent of its income was in dollars, while 35 percent of the company's expenditures were in dollars.

He said company sales amounted to Rp 724 billion last year, up from Rp 625 billion in 1996. But profits were down by one-third to about Rp 62 billion in 1997, compared to its profit of Rp 89 billion in 1996.

"The profit for this year is hard to predict due to the currency fluctuation," Sunardi said.

He said to cope with the monetary crisis, the company would switch to locally made equipment over imports to cut back on dollar expenditures.

He said Bukit Asam had also renegotiated with customers on coal prices.

PJB I president Firdaus Akmal said earlier the company had agreed with Bukit Asam to increase the coal price for the Suralaya power plant to Rp 93,000 per ton from Rp 73,000 per ton.

He said the new price would be effective for six months starting Jan. 1. (jsk)