Borneo's average selling price up 50% in 2010

Indonesia-listed coking coal producer PT Borneo Lumbung Energi and Metal Tbk booked net profit of about Rp 348.84 billion (1 US$ = Rp 8,722) in 2010 on surging sales and sharp increase in coal price.

The company, which suffered a loss of Rp 99.77 trillion in 2009, booked total revenue of about Rp 2.75 trillion in 2010, more than 13 fold from only about Rp 200.52 billion in 2009.

Director Geroad Jusuf said that besides higher sales volume, the sharp increase in revenues was also driven by the rise in the average coal price which increased 50 percent last year. He said that total sales volume reached 1.65 million tonnes in 2010, far higher than those in 2009 when the company just began its production.

?The production in 2009 was still very low because the commercial production was started only in September,? he added.

The company is targeting to produce 3.6-3.8 million tonnes of coal this year, although the production capacity has been increased to about 5 million tonnes. (*)