Toba Bara?s coal output jumps by over 39%

By Romel S. Gurky

Despite the current oversupply situation in the global coal market, which has contributed to the current drop in the price of the commodity, IDX-listed coal miner PT Toba Bara Sejahtera Tbk saw its coal output in the first nine months of this year jumped by 39.4 percent to 6.40 million tons from 4.59 million tons in the corresponding period of last year.

Toba Bara, which operates three producing coal concessions in East Kalimantan, said in a statement last week that about 54.5 percent (3.49 million tons) of the nine-month coal production was contributed by its subsidiary PT Adimitra Baratama Nusantara (ABN), albeit a decline from 67.7 percent contribution in the same period of last year.

Meanwhile, the contribution of PT Trisensa Mineral Utama (TMU) increased to 17.9 percent (1.14 million tons) of the nine-month total production from 11 percent following the completion last year of a key hauling road linking TMU with another mining concession operated by PT Indoming (IM). The latter contributed 1.77 million tons to the total January-September coal output. Both TMU and IM saw coal production soared by respectively 125.9 percent and 81.3 percent during the nine-month period year-on-year.

The three concessions have a combined coal resources of 236 million tons.

The higher production led to a 37.9 percent increase in coal sales volume to 6.08 million tons in the first nine months of this year from 4.41 million tons in the same period of last year, said Toba Bara, which exports some of its products among others to China and India.

Thanks to the stronger production s and sales volume, Toba Bara said it managed to book a 31 percent rise in sales revenue to $389.73 million from $297.5 million, despite the lower average selling price.

The company said that its ASP during the nine month period was $64.47 per ton, a 5 percent lower than $67.47 per ton in the same period of last year amid the current weak global coal market.

In line with the higher production, Toba Bara said that cost of goods sold increased by 32.1 percent to $323.27 million.

But EBITDA soared by 44 percent to $47.80 million during the nine-month period due to the higher sales volume and better execution of mine plan and efficiency measures. EBITDA margins improved to 14.8 percent from 13.5 percent, the company added.

Toba Bara said that net profit in the January-September period of this year jumped by 49.8 percent to $30.91 million from $19.34 million in the same nine-month period of last year.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak