Timah?s net profit down by 24.7%

State-owned tin miner PT Timah said on Tuesday that its 2008 consolidated net profit was down 24.7 percent to Rp 1.34 trillion (US$=Rp 11,530) from Rp 1.78 trillion in 2007.

Sales were, however, up to Rp 9.05 trillion from Rp 8.54 trillion a year earlier.

Production costs rose to Rp 6.33 trillion from Rp 5.37 trillion, while sales costs increased to Rp 79.48 billion from Rp 73.07 billion and general and administrative costs up to Rp 552.72 billion from Rp 353.05 billion.

Exploration expenses down to Rp 16.23 billion from 17.3 billion in 2007.

In January 2009, Timah said that it would set aside about Rp 700 billion from its budget for capital expenditure (capex) this year, down by 50 percent from Rp 1.4 trillion in 2008.

Corporate secretary Abrun Abubakar said that except for the ongoing projects such as the construction of tin solder and tin chemical plants, the development of offshore mining technology, the building of a large dredging ship and the construction of an asphalt factory in Buton, Southeast Sulawesi, all other expansion plans would be temporarily stopped, he said.

Abrun said that with the sharp decline in the tin demand in the world, the company had no plan to increase the production this year. In 2008, the company?s tin metal production dropped by about 16 percent to 49,029 tons from 58,325 tons in 2007. Total sales also fell by 20 percent to 46,438 tons from 57,897 tons in 2007, he said. (denny)