Coal news and updates

H1 coal sales up 20% at Jakarta-based Bukit Asam

State-controlled coal miner Bukit Asam sold 8.8 million tons of coal in the first semester this year, a 20 percent increase from a year earlier, corporate secretary Joko Pramono says.

He added that the Jakarta-based company produced 8.21 million tons in the first half of the year.

“Production at Bukit Asam was 6.7 million tons, subsidiaries contributed 1.6 million tons while trading activities made up the rest [of the sales volume],” he said.

Joko claimed this year’s target of 22.68 million tons coal production was still within reach, and would represent a 35 percent increase from 2012’s production volume.

He added that the company expects its financial performance to improve in the remainder of the year on the back of the operation of its coal railroad project.

It also planned to increase production capacity to 25 million tons this year and to 50 million tons in the next five years from currently 13 million tons.

Joko said Bukit Asam has allocated Rp 15 trillion ($1.48 billion) to infrastructure projects. This year capital expenditure is budgeted at between Rp 2.2 trillion and Rp 2.4 trillion.

Bukit Asam enjoys a long-standing and lucrative partnership with state utility company Perusahaan Listrik Negara. In March, it secured a deal worth Rp 157 trillion to supply PLN with coal until 2030.

The company has yet to announce its earnings results for the first half.

Bukit Asam’s net income dropped 44 percent to Rp 492 billion in the first quarter this year, amid a commodity price slump. Revenue at Bukit Asam fell 8 percent to Rp 2.77 trillion in the first quarter this year, the company said in April.

Last year, Bukit was PLN’s biggest coal supplier, feeding some 5.7 million tons of coal to PLN facilities across the Indonesian archipelago.

In December, Bukit sealed a 30-year contract to supply 68.6 million tons of coal to state-owned fertilizer producer Pupuk Indonesia.

Shares of Bukit Asam rose 3.5 percent to Rp 11,900 on the Indonesia Stock Exchange on Tuesday, outpacing the 1.9 percent gain of the main stock gauge on the local bourse.

Source: Jakarta Globe