THE
COORDINATING MINISTRY FOR ECONOMIC AFFAIRS
Tel: (021) 351-1178 Fax: (021)
351-1186 Website: http://www.ekon.go.id
Trade and
Investment News[1], 3 August 2009
Highlights
National
·
Politics
·
General
Election Commission sticks to legislator appointments
Terrorism
·
JI
figures decry bombings
Security
·
Law & order
·
More
arrests over Papua shootings
Health
·
Swine
flu cases top 500, precautions maintained
Economy
·
President
promises second stimulus program for 2010
·
Consumer
confidence highest among 28 countries in survey
Business briefs
Macroeconomy
·
July
inflation eased, new benchmark rate cut expected
·
Government
looks to increase level of tradeable bonds
Investment
·
Peugeot
expects to re-open assembly operation in 2012
·
Siemens
to spend $12.23 million on expansion for global role
State concerns
·
Contraction
in external trade far lower than first expected: Minister
·
Survey
finds SMEs optimistic, over 80% to boost spending
SOEs
·
Government
to seek greater dividends from SOEs to make up for lower tax
·
State
pension fund makes $460 million in first-half income
Private sector
·
PT
Astra International first-half profit falls, but better performance expected
Banks
·
Major,
mid-size banks report improved profits in first half
Oil & gas
·
PT
Pertamina seals $700 million in capital expenditure loans
Mining
·
State-owned
miner PT Bukit Asam more than doubles first-half profit
NATIONAL
The budget shortfall is expected to narrow to 1.6 percent of
gross domestic product in 2010 from 2.5 percent this year, President Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono told parliament in
“
Yudhoyono, elected for a second five-year term last month
with support from more than 60 percent of the nation’s 176 million voters, said
the 2010 budget deficit target was “quite safe and appropriate.”
“A strong emphasis on infrastructure and good implementation
will generate higher growth without the fear of adding to inflation,” said
Winston Sual, a director at
Inflation next year is expected to average 5 percent,
Yudhoyono said. Consumer prices rose 3.65 percent in June from a year earlier,
the smallest increase in nine years.
Govt. agencies should prepare for El Nino: SBY
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono called on all government
agencies to prepare for drought and food supply disruption caused by the El
Nino weather phenomenon, Antara reported.
"There are several steps government ministries and
local governments should implement to mitigate the El Nino threats,” said
Yudhoyono.
First, steps must be taken to secure rice supplies at the State
Logistics Agency (Bulog), he said.
Dr. Yudhoyono said the government will continue to provide
free rice for 17.5 million poor households. “An emergency fund is also being
prepared to tackle food shortages during El Nino,” the president said.
He said regional administrations must also ensure all
irrigation systems and dams are functioning.
“The administrations of Riau, South Sulawesi, Jambi, North
Sumatra, West Kalimantan, Central Kalimantan and
A senior economic official said the government has no plan
to import rice because it has sufficient stocks to meet domestic demand, even
if the El Nino weather pattern affects the harvest and hits rice production,
Reuters reported.
“There is no urgency to import rice," Krisnamurthi said,
adding that the rice stock was expected to dip to 1.5 million ton from 2.3
million tons by year-end.
Challenges in Aceh as post-tsunami activity diminishes: WB
After the economic boom from rebuilding projects in the wake
of the 2004 earthquake and tsunami, growth in the non-oil and gas sectors in
Aceh has dropped as reconstruction activities draw to a close, said the World
Bank, The
The Aceh Economic Update report was compiled by the World
Bank and Bank
World Bank research analyst Harry Masyrafah said Aceh’s
non-oil and gas gross domestic product growth had dropped to 1.9% in 2008, far
below the national figure of 6.5%.
“Sectors related to the reconstruction process, which has
been the driving force behind Aceh’s economic growth since 2005, now show
limited or negative growth,” he said.
The Aceh economy enjoyed a boom during the four years of
reconstruction, as large sums of money poured into the province leading to a
high employment rate. From 2005 through 2008, at least $6 billion was allocated
to Aceh.
As the reconstruction process winds down, related sectors
including construction and transportation have shown deceleration or negative
growth.
Masyrafah said the Aceh economy was still propped up by
revenues from the oil and gas sectors, but a reduction in gas output on Aceh’s
eastern coastline has hurt the bottom line.
The agricultural sector, which was expected to be the motor
behind the growth of alternative sectors after the reconstruction phase, has
not been able to maintain its previous year’s growth, he said.
POLITICS
KPU to go ahead with legislator decision
The General Elections Commission (KPU) announced Saturday a
recent Supreme Court decision would not change the allocation of legislative
seats, The Jakarta Post reported.
KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary said the court decision, which
had sparked criticism for giving big parties extra seats at the expense of
minor parties, would not change the decision made by the KPU and its local
branches regarding party seat allocation in both central and regional
legislative councils.
"The KPU really appreciates, respects and is ready to
implement verdicts (regarding the elections) from authorized institutions, in
this case the Supreme Court," Anshary told a press conference after a
marathon meeting discussing the court verdict.
"The court verdict, however, is non-retroactive, thus
all other decisions or rulings the KPU had earlier made are valid."
He said the inauguration of regional legislative council
members-elect should go ahead as planned.
KPU member I Gusti Putu Artha said the allocation of House
of Representatives seats would remain unchanged.
No second presidential vote: KPU
The General Elections Commission (KPU) said it would not
conduct a re-run of the presidential election, despite protests from the losing
candidates over the legitimacy of the vote, The
“The election law does not allow for the possibility of an
election re-run,” said I Gusti Putu Artha, a KPU member.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla and former President Megawati
Sukarnoputri, the two candidates who lost the July 8 election to President
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, had filed complaints with the
Dr. Yudhoyono on Tuesday said he welcomed the challenges,
adding that government institutions were designed to handle them.
Artha said the law only outlined the conditions required to
stage a second vote on a limited scale, but not at the national level.
“The Election Law allows for a vote re-run at the polling station
level, and only under strict conditions,” he said.
Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, a member of the Elections
Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), also said an election re-run was out of the
question.
“An election re-run would mean repeating the entire election
process,” he said. “The only thing the court could rule on would be a vote re-run
in certain locations, but that would also be under strict conditions. We would
need proof that the election was not conducted fairly in specific places,” he
said.
If the losing candidates are concerned about inaccuracies in
the voter list, they need to conclusively prove that certain individuals voted
several times under multiple names registered on the final voters list, or
provide evidence of people who were not registered, said Widodo.
TERRORISM
Top JI figures deplore
Two alleged leading Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leaders have said
they are against the deadly July 17 hotel bombings, believed to have been the
work of one of their leading members, Noordin M. Top, The Straits Times reported.
Clerics Abu Bakar Ba’asyir, 70, and Abu Rusdan, 48, made
clear their disagreement with whoever was behind the attacks that left nine
people dead.
“It was wrong for them to bomb a place that is not a
declared war zone,” said Ba’asyir.
Rusdan sought to distance JI entirely from the bombings,
saying that the organization had nothing to do with the attacks as it had been
inactive since 2000.
“Since the death of JI founder Abdullah Sungkar in 1999, the
organization has been leaderless and without any direction,” he said, adding
that splinter groups could have been behind the latest terrorist strike.
Both men stopped short of confirming suspicions that Top was
behind the suicide bombings at the JW Marriott and Ritz-Carlton that left nine
people dead.
The reactions of the two clerics highlighted the split
within the JI that, analysts say, has created splinter cells operating
independently of the main group.
Analysts say the cells can be divided into two groups: the
non-violent group that focuses mainly on dakwah, or spreading message through
peaceful means, and another which espouses violence, with the most prominent
cell being the one headed by the 44-year-old Top.
SECURITY
Security conditions in the capital have returned to normal
following the bombings of the luxury hotels on July 17, Jakarta Governor Fauzi
Bowo said, Detik.com reported.
“Activities in all locations have returned to their previous
condition,” Bowo said.
Bowo added that the number of visitors to
Signifying the ‘back to normal’ status, Bowo closed the
In another sign of a return to normalcy in the capital, both
of the luxury
On Wednesday, Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Wahyono called
for building managements to install closed circuit television (CCTV) systems in
an attempt to beef up security in the wake of the attacks.
“Building managements are responsible for implementing their
own security measures, including installing CCTV systems and devices to detect
suspicious materials in an effort to prevent future terrorist attacks,” Wahyono
said.
LAW & ORDER
Papua: Charges filed for
Police have charged two more suspects in a spate of deadly
shootings at Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold’s massive mine area in Timika,
Papua but the motive for the attacks remains a mystery, officials said Friday,
The Associated Press reported.
Police said on Friday that five more suspects had been
arrested on Thursday in Timika in connection to the recent violence.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Nanan Sukarna told a
news conference the five were “identified as civilians and four of them are
Sukarna did not provide further details about the detainees,
their alleged roles in the attacks or what evidence police might have obtained
from them, The
The latest arrests take to 14 the number of people facing
charges of premeditated murder and illegal weapons possession for the series of
ambushes that left three dead in July at the Grasberg complex, the largest gold
mine in the world.
A 29-year-old Australian, a
Papua Police chief Bagus Ekodanto said it is still unclear
if the culprits are members of the Free Papua Organization, which has waged a
low-level insurgency against the government in Papua for the past 45 years or a
different armed group.
HEALTH
Swine flu infections top 500: Health Ministry
Twenty-five confirmed new swine flu cases have brought the country’s
total to 520, a Health Ministry official said on Saturday night.
Director General for Disease Control Tjandra Yoga Aditama
said new cases were found in Bali,
Aditama said H1N1 infections in the country have so far been
found in 17 out of 33 provinces.
“All of the new patients appear to have contracted the H1N1
virus locally and not from overseas,” said Aditama. Two of the patients were
known to have traveled to
On July 25, the Health Ministry confirmed the country’s
first death linked to swine flu after a six-year-old girl who had severe
pneumonia died in a
ECONOMY
Govt. to continue fiscal stimulus in 2010: President
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has promised to continue
providing fiscal stimulus next year to help the economy recover, Dow Jones
reported.
"What we have done this year by providing Rp70 trillion
in fiscal stimulus will be done again next year," Yudhoyono said in a
conference call with governors of 33 provinces late on Thursday.
"Because of that we must prepare ourselves to have a
1.6% (of GDP) deficit (in the government's budget for 2010)."
The government and House have agreed on preliminary basic
assumptions - such as targeting economic growth between 5% and 6% and inflation
between 4.5% and 5.5% - to base next year's budget.
The International Monetary Fund Wednesday urged the
government to increase spending on infrastructure, bolster tax collection and
cut energy subsidies.
On Tuesday, vice president-elect Boediono said
Boediono also said the government will announce initiatives
to spur investment, improve infrastructure and enhance
social safety nets within the first 100 days of the next administration taking
office.
The economy is expected to expand by 4% this year and 5%
next year, said Boediono.
The
public continued to regard economic prospects as rosy, with the consumer
confidence index reaching 112.1 points in the second quarter, up 8.5% from the
previous three-month period, The Jakarta
Post reported.
Nielsen
Company Indonesia consumer research director Catherine Eddy said Thursday that
“2009 has been a good year for consumers from a price perspective, especially
compared with 2008, when households were really doing it tough with double
digit increases in many categories.”
A number
of factors contributed to strengthening the consumer confidence indicator,
notably benign inflation, smooth-running elections and a growing economy, the
survey found.
The
figure is the highest among 28 countries surveyed by the company, as well as
being higher than
The
survey also stated the robust consumer confidence was reflected partly in the
relatively healthy growth in retail trade and a significant rise in household
spending.
“The
value of the retail market on a year-to-date basis to May 2009 grew close to 7%
compared to the same period last year. Our Household Consumer panel shows a double
digit growth in household expenditure,” said Eddy.
“Consumer
confidence in
Year-on-year
inflation in June fell to a nine-year low hitting only 3.65% according to
Central Bureau of Statistics data, with the government expecting full-year
inflation to reach a meager 4.5%.
Overall,
the survey found
“The
Indonesian economy is more heavily reliant on domestic consumption than many of
its neighbors in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), so this
has provided some protection from the impacts of slowing export figures,” she
said.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
MACROECONOMY
The statistics agency said that compared with a month
earlier, inflation rose to 0.45% from 0.11% in June, mostly due to increases in
basic food prices and education costs.
Basic food prices rose by 1.1%, while education costs were
up by 1.21% in July.
The agency said that core inflation in July, however, slowed
to 4.91% from 5.56% in June.
The median forecast of 10 regional economists polled
recently by Dow Jones Newswires was for annual inflation to fall to 2.66%, due
to higher-base prices resulting from the government's move to increase fuel
prices in May last year, which led to higher prices overall in subsequent
months.
Nine economists who gave month-on-month inflation forecasts
expect the rate to be 0.38%.
Bank
Govt. eyes
more tradeable bonds: Minister
The government is considering turning non-tradeable
government bonds into paper that can be traded in the market, Finance Minister
Sri Mulyani Indrawati told Reuters on Friday, potentially increasing supply in
the market.
Finance ministry data showed there were Rp254 trillion ($25.62
billion) of non-tradeable conventional bonds and Rp2.7 trillion of
non-tradeable Islamic bonds (sukuk), as of June. Most of the debt was held by
the central bank. This compared to Rp705 trillion in tradeable government
bonds.
Indrawati did not give a specific timeframe but told Reuters
that the government was taking steps to maintain a deep and liquid bond market
in order to absorb the additional bond supplies.
As part of the plan, Bank Indonesia (BI) may start trading
the bonds in the market and thus help accelerate its efforts to rely more on
the debt market in its monetary operations rather than, as is currently the
case, on short-term central bank debt (SBI), which only has three different
maturities -- one month, three months and six months.
Bank
Indonesia (BI) absorbed Rp1.25 trillion ($125.6 million) through a 21-day
reverse repo auction on Thursday, beating its target of Rp1 trillion. BI also
held a 63-day reverse-repo auction, but received no bids.
Indrawati also indicated that the government did not rule
out the possibility of issuing more bonds in the overseas market later this year,
saying that it would depend on the timing and the size of the debt in line with
the budget requirements.
The Finance Ministry said after a successful sale of 35
billion yen ($367.3 million) worth of samurai bonds in mid July that it would
focus more on the local debt market to fund its budget deficit, prompting talk
that it may not issue any more debt overseas for the remainder of the year.
The yen bond was part of a total of an equivalent $1.5
billion in samurai bonds expected to be issued by the government in 2009-2010.
The ministry has so far raised around three quarters
of its 2009 full year gross bond issuance target.
Rupiah
appreciation remains positive: Official
The
rupiah exchange rate, which strengthened to Rp9,935
against the US dollar at the end of last week, still has a positive impact on
the Indonesian economy, a central bank official said, Antara reported.
“The
rupiah’s current appreciation is still within the limits of propriety as a
result of investors` growing interest in local securities, particularly in the
stock market,” Bank Indonesia (BI) deputy governor Hartadi A Sarwono said on
Friday.
The
positive sentiment was also fueled by the bullish market, which showed good
prospects for the Indonesian economy, he said.
The
dollar’s weakening against a range of foreign currencies including the rupiah
was due to a surge in the deficit of the
Indonesia, the world's most-populous Muslim country,
currently lags neighboring Malaysia, the Islamic financial hub for the region,
in terms of the market for shariah financial products, but that should change
given stronger government support and demand in the domestic market, he said.
Ma'ruf Amin, head of the Indonesian Ulema Council's (MUI)
commission in charge of issuing edicts including on Islamic markets, also said
he expected more conventional banks to be turned into Islamic lenders in the
near term.
"We will be bigger because the potential is much
bigger," Amin said. "The political will from the government is there;
from the president, the ministers. The government has also issued sukuk
(Islamic bonds)."
The government raised Rp5.56 trillion ($559 million) from
its retail, Islamic-compliant bonds in February and made a debut sale of $650
million worth of global Islamic bonds in April. Both issues attracted strong
demand from investors.
INVESTMENT
Peugeot plans to resume production in
French automaker Peugeot is considering resuming car
production in
"We plan to set up an assembling plant in
The assembly plant produced small and middle sized Peugeot
sedans before the economic crisis of the late 1990s slashed demand for the
vehicles.
Speaking on the sidelines of the launch of the new Peugeot
407, Herlijoso said that Peugeot's Indonesian plant is expected to become the
production basis for the Southeast Asian market.
Siemens
PT Siemens Indonesia is investing $12.23 million this year
to expand its power generation plant in Cilegon, Banten, The Jakarta Post reported.
The expansion includes the installation of new machines and
equipment to accommodate international orders awarded by parent company Siemens
AG, company officials said.
"Capability and reliability with quality standards of
our power-generation factory in Cilegon have become the most important
considerations in obtaining orders from projects of Siemens AG,
The factory is a feeder plant located on 43,000 square
meters of land, with a 24,000-square-meter production facility, the company
said Wednesday in a statement.
It is being considered for one of the feeder plants in the
global manufacturing network of Siemens Power Generation.
China-based automotive manufacturer Beiqi Foton Motor plans
to set up an assembly plant in
Dong Haiyang, vice president of Beiqi Foton Motor Co. and
general manager of Foton International Trade Co. Ltd., said the automaker
regarded
“As a newcomer in the bus, truck and heavy duty vehicle
market in Indonesia, we have set a target to secure 2% market share in our
category within three years and to improve to 3% in the following two
years," Haiyang said on the sidelines of the launch of a Foton Multi
Purpose Vehicle (MPV) at the 2009 Indonesia International Motor Show.
The Beijing-based manufacturer has set up cooperation with
two domestic firms, PT Foton Mobilindo and PT Foton
It has allocated some $300,000 to develop after-sales
service and secure spare parts supplies.
Haiyang said the investment in
STATE CONCERNS
2009 exports to contract 15%-20%: Minister
This year’s exports will contract less sharply than the
official forecast due to a likely recovery in Asian economies in the second
half, Trade Minister Mari Pangestu told reporters Monday, Dow Jones reported.
Exports will likely fall by between 15% and 20% this year,
compared with the government's forecast of a 30% decline, Pangestu said.
"We expect our exports in the second half of this year
to improve," Pangestu said.
She said that
She didn't give a forecast for total export value for 2009.
SMEs upbeat about economy in H2: Survey
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in
The survey by HSBC showed that most of the small and medium
businesses surveyed expect the economy to perform even better in the second
half of the year.
"The key drivers of business confidence are the
nation's economic growth, SME's smaller reliance on exports and SMEs' ability
to produce quality products that meet local demand," HSBC senior vice
president of business banking Jeffrey C. Tjoeng said on Tuesday.
The survey, which is based on the bank's business deals with
SMEs during the first six months of the year, involves 301 SMEs with a turnover
of less than $10 million in Greater Jakarta, operating in sectors ranging from
import and export, finance, manufacturing and transportation.
Around 60% of the SMEs surveyed are confident the country's
GDP will continue growing, as they believe local demand will rise as a result
of people's strong purchasing power.
Fifteen percent of the SMEs surveyed are even aiming to
boost their employee numbers, while 77% will try to at least maintain employee
numbers in the second half.
SOEs
Govt. seeks more dividends from SOEs
The government is considering collecting higher dividends
from state enterprises this year, including state oil and gas company PT
Pertamina, senior officials revealed Tuesday, The Jakarta Post reported.
"There is a plan to increase Pertamina's dividend
payment. We already have the figure, but I need to carry out further analysis
on this matter," secretary to the State Minister for State Enterprises,
Muhammad Said Didu, said.
Pertamina, the biggest dividend contributor to the state
coffers, was earlier required to pay dividends of as much as 45% of the
company's net profit.
The dividend paid by Pertamina usually represents about half
of the total dividends paid by state enterprises. For the 2008 fiscal year,
Pertamina's dividend has been earmarked at Rp13.59 trillion, up from Rp11
trillion in 2007.
Didu said the government had to ask Pertamina for higher
dividends because the overall tax revenue was decreasing.
"In the 2009 revised state budget, the state
enterprises must increase their dividend payment to the government, because the
target from tax has decreased slightly," he said.
State Minister for State Enterprises Sofyan Djalil confirmed
the government's plan to ask for higher dividends from state-owned companies.
"We have talked with the House's budget committee. The
state companies' dividend payment will be increased to between Rp28.5 and Rp29
trillion," Djalil said, adding the government would decide which state
firms would be required to pay more dividends in the third quarter. Initially,
the dividend had been set at Rp26.1 trillion.
Jamsostek books returns of Rp4.6T from investments
State insurance company PT Jamsostek posted returns of Rp4.6
trillion ($460 million) during the first half of this year, from a total
investment of Rp70.5 trillion, a senior executive said on Tuesday, The Jakarta Post reported.
"The largest portion of the return was from investments
in bonds," Jamsostek investment director Elvyn G Masasya told journalists
on the sidelines of a MoU signing between Jamsostek and state-owned Bank BNI.
He said the company's investments in bonds reached Rp33
trillion, or 47% of its total investments in the first semester.
According to Masasya, the company was targeting to put 50%
of its investments in bonds, 20% in time deposits, 15% in stocks and the rest
in mutual funds as well as capital injection.
"We are targeting to invest Rp72 trillion this
year," Masasya said.
Last semester, the company disbursed Rp3.2 trillion toward
claims or 79% of the Rp4.82 trillion allocated to the payment of claims in
2009, said Jamsostek president director Hotbonar Sinaga, adding the high amount
of claims was boosted by a high level of layoffs at the beginning of 2009.
Telkom
posts biggest quarterly profit in seven years
State-owned
telecommunication company PT Telkom posted its biggest quarterly profit in
almost seven years, Bloomberg reported.
Net
income in the second quarter this year advanced 16% to Rp3.59 trillion ($361
million) from Rp3.09 trillion a year earlier, the highest since the third
quarter of 2002. Sales rose 5.3% to Rp15.97 trillion, according to figures
announced by the company on Friday.
Telkom’s
profit may rise 12% this year to Rp11.78 trillion, according to a median
estimate of 25 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News.
The
company added 10 million new phone users in the first half of the year, Bisnis Indonesia reported on Wednesday.
Revenue
from the company’s mobile phone services unit, PT Telkomsel, which is 35% owned
by Singapore Telecommunications Ltd., rose 13% to Rp7 trillion in the quarter.
Telkom’s
first half profit declined 4.1% from a year earlier to Rp6.04 trillion, the
company said. Sales rose to Rp30.67 trillion from Rp30.21 trillion.
Meanwhile, Telkom said it will use around $50 million of its
total investment of Rp21 trillion ($2.1 billion) planned for this year to build
a new satellite Telkom-3 which will be built by Russia's Retshesnev at a total
cost of around $200 million, including launching cost, under an agreement
signed in February.
Semen Gresik H1 net profit up 33%
Semen Gresik said net profit for January-June rose to Rp1.51
trillion ($152 million) from Rp1.14 trillion in the year-ago period, while
revenue climbed 18.8% to Rp6.767 trillion from Rp5.697 trillion.
The company earlier reported a 5.7% decline in cement sales
in the first half of this year to 8.39 million tons on weak domestic demand.
PRIVATE SECTOR
Astra's
Q2 net profit down, expects better H2
PT Astra
International on Thursday said it sees scope for a recovery in the second half
with improving consumer confidence potentially helping businesses ranging from
cars to plantations, Reuters reported.
"Consumer
confidence tends to increase along with the positive outlook on inflation,
interest rate and currency," president director Michael D Ruslim said in a
statement.
"The
firm is expected to continue to withstand a challenging market in the second
half, especially in the motorcycle business."
Astra,
controlled by
One of
Astra's subsidiaries, PT Astra Honda Motor, recently revised up its motorcycle
sales forecast to 2.45 million units this year, from a previous forecast of
2.1-2.4 million units, indicating a pick-up in consumer demand.
Astra’s plantation subsidiary PT Astra Agro Lestari, on Tuesday
said net profit fell 51.8% to Rp769.85 billion ($77.6 million) in the first
half as palm oil prices fell.
Its revenue for the January-June period fell 23.8% to
Rp3.538 trillion from Rp4.645 trillion in the year-ago period.
Astra’s heavy
equipment maker and coal mine contractor PT United Tractors posted net profit
in the first half of this year at Rp1.87 trillion, an increase from Rp1.2
trillion in the same period a year ago.
Sales
revenue was recorded at Rp13.88 trillion, up from Rp12.59 trillion in the first
half last year.
Unilever H1 net profit rises 9.5%
PT Unilever
Unilever's net profit rose to Rp1.49 trillion ($150.4
million) in the first six months of this year from Rp1.36 trillion in the same
period a year earlier.
The rise in the net profit is mostly due to currency gains,
posting a profit of Rp998 million against losses of Rp8.9 million a year
earlier.
Sampoerna, Gudang Garam post higher H1 net profits
The country’s two leading cigarette manufacturers, Sampoerna
and Gudang Garam, both recorded improved profit in the first half of 2009.
PT HM Sampoerna said
Thursday that first-half net profit rose 29% from a year earlier on increased
sales, Dow Jones reported.
The country’s second largest cigarette producer by output
and assets said net profit for the January-to-June period rose to Rp2.52
trillion from Rp1.96 trillion a year earlier.
Sales rose 12% to Rp18.66 trillion from Rp16.70 trillion a
year earlier.
Sampoerna is 98.04% owned by PT Philip Morris Indonesia.
Meanwhile, another tobacco firm, PT Gudang Garam, reported
its first-half net profit rose to Rp1.43 trillion from Rp891.36 billion in the
same period last year, Reuters reported.
Sales rose to Rp15.065 trillion from Rp15.056 trillion in
the first half last year.
Indocement H1 net profit Rp1.17T
PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa Thursday said first half net
profit rose to Rp1.17 trillion ($117 million) from Rp772.32 billion a year
earlier, supported by higher revenue, Dow Jones reported.
The country’s second largest cement producer in terms of
output said revenue increased to Rp8.96 trillion from Rp7.62 trillion a year
earlier.
Operating profit edged up to Rp2.07 trillion from Rp1.92
trillion.
BANKS
BCA books Rp3.3T in H1 net profit
Bank Central Asia (BCA) posted a net profit of Rp3.3
trillion ($303 million) in the first half of this year, a 35.9% increase from
Rp2.4 trillion in the same period of 2008, The
Jakarta Post reported.
"Amid this global crisis, we are pleased our profits
have increased," BCA president director Djohan E. Setijoso said Wednesday.
Setijoso attributed the profit rise to the increase of
interest and fee-based income as well as lower taxation.
He added BCA’s interest income rose by 42.7% year-on-year to
Rp7.7 trillion, while the tax applied to it was reduced to 23% in 2009 from 30%
in 2008.
Mid-sized
banks report robust profit growth
Two of
the country’s medium-sized banks on Thursday announced strong first half profit
growth and healthy liquidity positions, The
Jakarta Globe reported.
PT Bank
CIMB Niaga, the country’s fifth-largest bank, reported unaudited net profit of
Rp696 billion ($70 million) for the first half, up 20% from a year ago, thanks
to higher net interest income and revenue from foreign exchange (forex) and
commercial debt paper.
The
bank’s net interest income for the first six months hit Rp2.9 trillion, up 28%
from a year ago, while its forex earnings stood at Rp156 billion, up from Rp87
billion. Its fixed-income revenue, however, fell to Rp44 billion from Rp 245
billion.
The
bank’s lending grew 3% year-on-year to Rp72.6 trillion. “The positive
performance of the bank gives us hope, despite the fact that business
conditions at the moment are relatively challenging,” said Arwin Rasyid, CIMB Niaga’s
president director.
The bank
reported that its third-party funds — mainly customer deposits and checks in
clearing — remained relatively stable during the first six months of the
year, even though liquidity did tighten somewhat. It held Rp82.6 trillion in
third-party assets at the end of the first half, little changed from Rp82.5
trillion a year ago.
PT Bank
Permata, the country’s ninth-largest bank by assets, announced an after-tax
profit of Rp325 billion for the first half, an increase of 17% from the same
period in 2008.
Permata’s
net interest income rose 15% year-on-year to Rp1.4 billion, while its
outstanding loans grew 18% from the first half of 2008 to Rp36.7 trillion.
“We not
only posted sound improvement in our profitability, but also optimized our
intermediation function in supporting the Indonesian economy while still
offering a wide range of innovative banking solutions in conventional and shariah
banking,” Stewart D. Hall, Permata’s president director, said.
The
bank’s third-party funds rose 29% year-on-year to Rp43.1 trillion in the first
half. Demand deposits and savings recorded healthy increases of 13% and 9%, to
Rp8.9 trillion and Rp7.8 trillion, respectively. Time deposits increased 45%,
from Rp18.2 trillion to Rp26.4 trillion.
PT Bank
OCBC NISP reported a net profit of Rp162.3 billion for the first six months, a
10% rise from a year ago. The bank’s net interest income grew 26.6% to Rp829
billion, but its outstanding loans shrank 6%.
The bank
said in a statement that it had been very selective in channeling credit,
considering the unstable global economic conditions that are having an impact
on
OCBC
NISP’s third-party funds increased from Rp21.3 trillion in June 2008 to Rp27.3
trillion last month.
POWER
PLN to call tender for Muara Tawar add-on project
State power company PT PLN will call a tender for the
construction of the Muara Tawar add-on thermal power plant with a capacity of
1,200 MW early in August, PLN planning and technology director Bambang Praptono
said on Monday, Antara reported.
He said the company was in the middle of finalizing details
of locations for projects which would be built in the second phase 10,000 MW
capacity expansion program.
PLN operations director for the Java-Bali grid Murtaqi
Syamsuddin said the company was waiting for a presidential regulation which
would lay a legal basis for the construction of the second phase.
PLN would call a tender for the engineering, procurement and
construction (EPC) of the Muara Tawar Add-On project after the finance minister
had endorsed the company’s proposal for export credits to finance the project,
he said.
The Muara Tawar power plant was called an add-on project
because it would make use of heat residue to increase electrical power
capacity, he said.
The Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) had
earlier expressed an intention to finance the project. EPC contractors expected
to take part in the tender include Sumitomo, Mitsui, Mitsubishi and Siemens.
The other power plant to be put to tender in the near future
will be the
Provisional data show PLN has prepared 78 different
locations for the power plants to be built in the second phase. Most of the
power plants with capacity of 5,685 MW will be built in Java and the rest
outside Java.
OIL & GAS
H1
transactions at local banks reach $1.8B
Oil and
gas contractors have so far made $1.8 billion worth of transaction commitments
through local banks, or 64.29% of the companies’ total expenses in the first
half of the year, The Jakarta Post
reported.
As of
June, oil and gas contractors operating in Indonesia have made a total of $2.8
billion worth of banking transactions, of which $1.8 billion was made using
domestic banks, upstream oil and gas regulator BP Migas’s general deputy
Hardiono told reporters Thursday.
“I am
confident that about $11 billion will be spent using domestic bank services,”
Hardiono said. BP Migas demanded oil and gas contractors use local bank
services to help boost the liquidity of the country’s banking sector.
Local
banks used by oil and gas contractors included Bank Mandiri, Bank Negara
Hardiono
believed the amount of transactions the contractors made using domestic banks
would significantly increase in the second semester as the oil and gas
contractors normally make most of their purchases in the third quarter.
Oil and
gas contractors plan to spend a total of $15 billion this year for their
exploration and production activities.
Hardiono
said the requirement to use domestic banks only applied to oil and gas
companies in the production stage. This obligation only applies to contracts
signed from 1995 onwards, after
Pertamina signs $700M capex loans
State-owned oil and gas company PT Pertamina on Friday
signed syndicated loans worth $400 million and Rp3 trillion ($302.6 million)
with local and foreign banks to fund upstream and downstream projects, Reuters
reported.
The dollar loan involves 16 banks, including Citigroup unit
Citibank NA, Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ and Sumitono Mitsui Banking
Corporation, a statement from local lender PT Bank Mandiri said. Citigroup is
lead arranger for the loan.
"We believe this loan facility can speed up Pertamina's
expansions and business developments in the future, in line with the strategic
target set by the company," Karen Agustiawan, Pertamina's president
director, said in a statement.
The $400 million loan has a maturity of three years and
would pay 338 basis points above the
Mandiri is lead arranger for the rupiah loan and will lend
Rp1.25 trillion, while Rp750 billion comes from PT Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI),
Rp500 billion from PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI) and Rp500 billion from PT
Bank Central Asia (BCA).
Siahaan told reporters Pertamina planned to spend Rp22
trillion on capital expenditure in 2009, with 65% allocated for upstream
activities and 35% for downstream. The firm is estimated to have invested Rp17
trillion in 2008.
"There are many Pertamina projects that need to be
financed, including upstream and downstream. Upstream projects include Cepu and
the offshore North West Java block," he said.
Pertagas to build $27M
PT Pertamina Gas (Pertagas), a subsidiary of state oil and
gas company PT Pertamina, has allocated about $27 million to build a liquefied
petroleum gas (LPG) plant in Bekasi,
"We expect the plant to be on stream in December
2010," the company's president director Suharyanto told reporters Tuesday.
The company is tendering the project, he said.
The plant would process 15 million standard cubic feet per
day (mmscfd) of gas and produce 130 tons of LPG per day.
The gas for the plant would be supplied by PT Pertamina EP,
another subsidiary of Pertamina.
BP to start second train LNG output at Tangguh in Q3
BP Plc said it planned to start liquefied natural gas
production at the second unit of its Tangguh plant in
“There is no deliberate process to slow it down” because of
lower global demand for LNG, said Andy Inglis, BP chief executive for
exploration and production, on Wednesday.
“So you shouldn’t expect that we get anywhere near the full
output from Tangguh before the end of the year.”
BP and its partners shipped the first LNG cargo from Tangguh
on July 6, after the start of the first production unit. LNG is gas chilled to
a liquid to aid transport and storage.
Meanwhile, China National Offshore Oil Corp.’s
MINING
Bukit Asam more than doubles H1 net profit
State coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam enjoyed a
strong first-half performance with six-month net profit more than double the
amount booked in the same period last year, The
Jakarta Post reported.
“Revenue and profit soared as a result of higher volume
sales and a better selling price for coal,” president director Sukrisno said on
the sidelines of a meeting at the Office of the State Minister for State
Enterprises Monday.
Sukrisno told reporters net profit during the January-June
period jumped to Rp1.59 trillion (around $160 million), as higher sales volume
and prices bolstered revenues. Revenue soared 56% to Rp4.6 trillion.
During the first quarter, the company managed to sell its
coal at $90 a ton on average, higher than the $60 and $70 a ton selling price
in the same period last year.
“We predict that revenue in the second semester will also be
good but who knows, because the coal price remains uncertain,” he said.
“It depends on the market price, but I am quite sure our
sales volume will increase [from last year] by perhaps around 40%,” he said of
the company’s full-year revenue estimates.
The company gained Rp1.7 trillion in net profit last year,
and paid the government Rp555.2 billion in dividends. It allocated a total of
Rp853.9 billion toward shareholder dividends in 2008.
The company, which controls about a quarter of
It is currently conducting feasibility studies for the
purchase of two coal mines in
According to Sukrisno, the company produced 5.8 million tons
of coal in the first semester. The company is aiming to produce 13.5 million
tons this year.
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[1] This Trade and Investment News is a publication of the Coordinating
Ministry for Economic Affairs of the