PTBA?s net profit jumps more than 242%

IDX-listed coal mining firm PT Bukit Asam Tbk (PTBA) reported Friday that net profit in the first six months of this year soared by 242.2 percent on the back of higher coal production, sales volume and coal price, and improving efficiency.

PTBA said in a statement that net profit in the January-June period of this year jumped to Rp 1,723.9 trillion from Rp 711.8 billion in the corresponding period of last year.

The company said that revenue in the first semester of this year increased by 32.7 percent to Rp 8.97 trillion from Rp 6.76 trillion in the same period of last year. It said that the increase in revenue was a result of successful market penetration selling low to medium range calorie coal amid improving coal price.

PTBA said that sales volume rose by 13.4 percent to 11.36 million tons from 10.02 million tons, of which export accounted for 4.16 million tons, or an 11.4 percent increase year-on-year, while domestic market accounted for 7.20 million tons, or a 14.6 percent rise.

The higher demand was due to an increase in demand for Bukitasam-48 and Bukitasam-50 coal brands both in the export and domestic markets, PTBA said.

The company said that despite the 23.3 percent increase in coal production, and 13.4 percent rise in sales volume during the January-June 2017 period, cost of sales only rose by 10 percent due to efficiency programs.

Coal production in the first semester of this year increased by 23.3 percent to 9.43 million tons from 7.65 million tons in the same period of last year, while coal purchase reached 172,000 tons.

In line with optimization of mine plan and operation, average stripping ratio at the Tanjung Enim mine in South Sumatra during the first semester 2017 period declined to 3.93x from 5.47 in the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, railway transportation volume increased by 20.7 percent to 10.2 million tons from 8.5 million tons, PTBA said.

The company said that in the first semester of this year, that gross profit margin stood at 37.3 percent; operating profit margin at 26.6%; and net profit margin at 19.2 percent, all improving compared to same period of last year?s margins of 24.4 percent; 12.1 percent, and 10.5, respectively.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak