United Tractors? profit drops 46% in H1

By Romel S. Gurky

IDX-listed mining and heavy equipment firm PT United Tractors Tbk announced on Thursday a net profit of Rp 1.9 trillion in the first half of the year (H1 2016), a drop of 46 percent compared to the same period of last year.

Consolidated sales in H1 2016 reached Rp 22.6 trillion, down by 10 percent from H1 2015. Four pillars of the firm? business ? construction machine, mining contractor, mining and construction industry ? contributes 30 percent, 51 percent, 14 percent and 4 percent to the consolidated revenue.

Along with the decrease in sales, gross profit fell by 27 percent from Rp 5.7 trillion to Rp 4.2 trillion. After deducting rising expenses, including foreign exchange loss, pre-tax profit fell by 46 percent to Rp 2.4 trillion.

Mining unit PT Tuah Turangga Agung recorded 4.5 million tons of coal sales in H1 2016, up 58 percent from 2.8 million tons in H1 2015. Along with the increase in sales volume, the unit?s revenue also increased by 35 percent to Rp 3.2 trillion.

Mining contractor unit PT Pamapersada Nusantara booked a 22 percent decrease in sales to Rp 11.6 trillion. The firm?s coal production volume dropped from 52 million tons to 49.8 million tons, while the volume of overburden removal dropped from 373.7 million bcm to 339.2 million bcm.

During H1 2016, sales of Komatsu heavy equipment reached 1,036 units, down 25 percent compared to H1 2015. This resulted from a decrease in demand from all sectors which need heavy equipment, except for construction sector where demand was higher. Of the total sales volume, 52 percent was absorbed by the construction sector, 23 percent by the mining sector, 15 percent by forestry sector, 10 percent by plantation sector.

Editing by Johannes Simbolon