Bukit Asam Posts Flat Net Income Last Year Amid Lower Coal Prices
Jakarta. Indonesian coal miner Bukit Asam booked a flat growth in net income last year as coal prices were low on the back of the lower coal prices, the company said in a statement on Wednesday (15/03).
Bukit Asam posted Rp 2.02 trillion ($150.2 million) in net income last year, slightly down from Rp 2.03 trillion a year earlier.
The company's revenue slightly increased, by 1.5 percent, to Rp 14.06 trillion.
The state-controlled miner said in a memo signed by its corporate secretary Adib Ubaidillah that its coal sales volume increased to 20.7 million tons from 19.1 million tons, but the average selling price for domestic market dropped to Rp 676,013 per ton last year from Rp 707,052 per ton in 2015.
This year, Bukit Asam is hoping to see its coal sales rising to 27.28 million tons with the rising domestic demand for coal and the completion of a double track railway from Prabumulih station to its mine in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources expects the domestic coal demand to increase to 124.86 million tons from 106.63 million tons last year.
Bukit Asam has made various efforts to boost its margins by developing infrastructure to transport coal to ports. It managed to increase its transportation capacity by cooperating with state-controlled train operator Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) to ship its production from Tanjung Enim mine to Tarahan Port and Kertapati Port in Palembang.
Last year, the amount of coal transported by the company on KAI trains increased by 12.2 percent to 17.72 million tons. This year, the miner targets to freight 21.7 million tons of coal with KAI.
The company has also been supporting the government's ambitious power projects by investing in coal-fired power plants in various regions across the country, including facilities in Mulut Tambang Banko Tengah, South Sumatra and in East Halmahera, North Maluku.
This year, the miner plans to expand its business to South Korea, the Philippines and Bangladesh.
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