Antam's first semester profit exceeds target
Friday, September 8 2000 - 04:30 AM WIB
State-owned mining firm PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (Antam) booked a profit of Rp 212 billion in the first semester of this year, far exceeding its target of Rp 120 billion.
Antam president Dedy Aditya Sumanagara said that the profit in the first semester of this year was almost the same with the profit the company booked for the whole year of 1999, that reached Rp 125 billion.
Dedy explained that the soaring profit was contributed by the company's increasing production volume, increasing nickel prices in the international market and the weakening of the rupiah against the U.S. dollar.
Antam produced 5,000 tons of nickel and 2 tons of gold ore in the first semester of this year. With that production level, Antam has been operating nearly 100 percent of its production capacity.
Meanwhile, last year, the company was operating at about 70 percent of its production capacity, with nickel output reaching 9,800 tons and gold output at 2.7 tons for the whole year of 1999.
"And in 1998, we utilized only 30 percent of our production capacity," Dedy said.
Besides the increase in output, nickel prices rose from between $2.8 and $3 per pounds of nickel to $3.6 per pounds in the first semester of this year. (*)