INCO's profit drops sharply

JAKARTA: Publicly listed nickel miner PT International Nickel Indonesia (INCO) said on Thursday its net profit fell to US$9.3 million in 2001 from $80.5 million in the previous year.

INCO president Rumengan Musu said in a statement that the company attributed the sharp decline in profits to the significant drop that had taken place in the price of the commodity.

INCO's realized price averaged $4,836 per ton for the year 2001, compared with $6,744 per ton in 2000.

Rumengan, however, noted that the company had a more than adequate cash flow to fully meet its debt servicing requirements of $104.9 million. -- JP