Bukit Asam's Profit More Than Doubles on Coal Prices

By Naila Firdausi and Leony Aurora

July 28 (Bloomberg) -- PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, the holder of a quarter of Indonesia's coal reserves, said first-half profit more than doubled as prices of the fuel reached records.

Net income rose to 710.35 billion rupiah ($78 million), or 308 rupiah a share, in the six months ended June 30, from 302.22 billon rupiah, or 131 rupiah a share, a year earlier, Bukit Asam said in a statement published in Bisnis Indonesia newspaper. Sales climbed to 2.89 trillion rupiah from 1.83 trillion rupiah.

Power-station coal prices have more than doubled on rising demand from Asian electricity producers, led by China and India, and as railroad and port bottlenecks in Australia and South Africa curbed supplies. Bukit Asam increased prices to the Suralaya power plant in Java, its biggest customer, by 13 percent starting July, the third increase this year, the company said June 30.

The company sold 5.85 million tons of coal, including 1.16 million tons that it didn't produce, in the first half of the year, a 15 percent increase from last year, Bukit Asam said in an e-mailed statement today.

Annual sales may rise 70 percent to 7 trillion rupiah this year, President Director Sukrisno said July 14. Profit may reach 1.5 trillion rupiah, nearly twice as much as last year's, he said.

Bukit Asam may produce as much as 10.5 million tons of coal this year as railway transport capacity rises, Nurtimah Tobing, head of investor relations at the company, said by telephone today. That's 3 percent higher than a February estimate.

PT Kereta Api Indonesia, the state railway operator that transports Bukit Asam's coal from its mines in Tanjung Enim to a port at the southern tip of Sumatra island, will operate 130 new railway cars by August, adding this year's capacity by 300,000 tons, Bukit Asam said in the statement.

Bukit Asam shares have risen 9.6 percent this year, compared with the 17 percent decline in the benchmark Jakarta Composite Index. The shares were unchanged at 13,150 rupiah at 1:52 p.m. in Jakarta.

To contact the reporters on this story: Naila Firdausi in Jakarta at nfirdausi@bloomberg.net; Leony Aurora in Jakarta at laurora@bloomberg.net.