Timah's sales surge due to hike in tin price

JAKARTA (JP): Publicly listed state-owned tin company PT Timah announced on Tuesday its net profit of Rp 250.1 billion (US$31.2 million) in the first half of this year, up 37.3 percent from Rp 182.1 billion in the same period last year.

Timah said the sales volume suffered a decline during the first semester but higher realized prices for the company's tin metal enabled the company to push up the net profit.

The average tin price received by the company was 5 percent higher from US$5,369 per ton during the first half of last year.

The company said operating profit during the period was 45 percent lower at Rp 207.7 billion from Rp 377.9 billion last year. Sales volume declined 19 percent to 17,398 tons in the first half of this year from 21,408 tons last year.

Sales of refined tin production also dropped by 14 percent to 15,683 tons in the first half of 2000 from 18,323 tons in the same period last year.

The company said total production of tin-in-concentrates declined by 4 percent in the first half of this year to 17,179 tons from 17,854 tons in the same period last year, which is partly due to a decrease in inland mines amid the continuing conflict with locals over land use.

The number of inland mines operated during the first half of this year was 241 units, compared to 285 units operated in the same period last year.

The lower number of inland mines has also caused the earth- moving volume to fall by 29 percent and tin-in-concentrates production to decline by 9 percent to 9,398 tons in the first half of this year from 10,638 tons last year, the company said.

Timah said it tried to improve the performance of inland mining by, among other things, increasing the tin-in-concentrates compensation paid to contractors by between 20 percent and 35 percent and improving coordination with local communities, local leaders and government officials. (cst)