Fertilizer firm reports increase in earnings

Fertilizer firm reports increase in earnings

JAKARTA (JP): PT Pupuk Kaltim, a state-owned fertilizer company based in Bontang, East Kalimantan, registered a more than 200 percent increase in its profit last year to Rp 80 billion (US$37.20 million) from Rp 25.6 billion in 1993.

The company's president, Suratman, attributed the robust growth in earnings to the sharp increase in the production of urea and ammonia and the rise in prices.

"Productions of all three urea and ammonia plants operated by the company surpassed the company's original targets," he told reporters at a year-end press briefing at the industrial site in Bontang on Saturday.

The company produced 1.81 million tons of urea and 1.37 million tons of ammonia in 1994.

Suratman said that 321,000 tons of the total ammonia production were exported to the Philippines, India, Taiwan and China, 398,000 tons sold to PT Petrokimia, a state-owned petrochemical firm in Gresik, East Java, and the remainder used for the company's urea production.

Around 430,000 tons of the urea production were exported and the remainder sold on the domestic market.

The West Java-based PT Pupuk Kujang, another state-owned fertilizer company, also reported an increase in its urea and ammonia production.

The company's urea production reached 536,325 tons last year, one percent above the original projection of 535,815 tons, while its ammonia production reached 349,728 million tons.

Eddie Madnawidjaya, the company's president, said that the 1994 production level was considered high as most of its production equipment needed upgrading.

He said that the construction of the second production unit is urgently needed to enable the company to tap the growing fertilizer demand expected in the next five years.(hen)