Bumi swings into the red amid coal drop

By Romel S. Gurky

IDX-listed coal mining firm PT Bumi Resources Tbk turned into the red in the first semester of this year amid lingering weak coal price.

The company reported Tuesday that it suffered a net loss of US$566.2 million in the January-June period of this year compared to a net profit of $130.1 million in the corresponding period of last year.

The firm said that revenue in the first six months of this year dropped by 41 percent to $21.5 million from $36.6 million in the same period of last year.

The weaker financial performance comes amid the current downturn in the global coal market as the company saw its coal selling price further weakened by 12 percent in the first semester of this year to $46.6 per ton (FOB), compared to $52.7 per ton.

Bumi said that coal production in the January-June period of this year fell by 14 percent to 39.1 million tons from 44.2 million tons in the corresponding period of last year.

Sales volume declined by 10 percent to 39.9 million tons from 44.2 million tons.

Bumi said Monday that it has proposed to its creditors new scheme to restructure a combined US$3.98 billion debts.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak