Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam gets new president

Ismet Harmaini has been appointed as the new president of the state-owned coal mining firm PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, replacing RA Sunardi, who had been leading the company for seven years.

Ismet is a former director at the state-owned cement maker PT Semen Padang, which is based in West Sumatra.

The post handing ceremony was held at Bukit Asam headquarters in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra.

Ismet declined to provide much comments to journalists, but he played down earlier reports suggesting that Bukit Asam employees would not welcome him because he was an outsider.

The appointment of Ismet is part of a major reshuffle at the company. Four new directors were also appointed namely Mahmudi Iskandar as director for general affairs, Aziz Nazori as director of finance, Sukrisno as director of production, and AC Purba as director of technique.

Meanwhile, Sunardi told reporters that Bukit Asam was expected to book a net profit of around Rp 292 billion this year on the back of total revenue of Rp 2.3 trillion. He said that as per October, net profit had reached Rp 225 billion.

Sunardi said that net profit could have been much greater if Bukit Asam?s operation in Ombilin, West Sumatra, did not suffer losses of around Rp 95 billion. He did not elaborate.

Sunardi said that the company?s Tanjung Enim operation in South Sumatra was very profitable.(*)