Holcim Indonesia eyeing over 20% rise in net profit
PT Holcim Indonesia, the local unit of Holcim Ltd sets net profit target at IDR1trn (US$112m) this year or a 20.7 per cent rise from last year.
Holcim deputy finance director Irman B. Andriesjah said the profit forecast is based on sales expected to reach IDR7trn this year.
The country’s third largest cement producer is set to post sales totaling 7.3Mt or an increase of 30 per cent from last year, Irman said yesterday.
For 2012 the company is aiming for sales to rise three per cent to 7.5Mt, according to Rusli Setiawan, Holcim’s relationship manager. “We want to maintain our share at 15 per cent, which means we need to sell 7.5Mt," he said.
Rusli said that with total demand growing by around 5Mta, next year’s projected demand was 50Mt.
“Each year there’s demand for 800,000 new houses," Rusli said. “On top of that, infrastructure is growing rapidly, while expansion for the cement industry is limited. Usually, demand for cement grows twice as fast as economic growth."
Rusli said the company had forecast this year’s sales at IDR7trn (US$777m), with net income at IDR1trn.
“Next year we’re anticipating a hike in production costs due to the planned increase in electricity rates and coal prices," he said. “So it’s a bit hard to give out profit projections."
In the first nine months of this year, the company reported IDR740.22bn in net profit or an increase of 19.5 per cent over the same period last year. Published under Cement News
