Indocement profit rises, gears up for expansion

Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa, part of the HeidelbergCement group, reported a 24 per cent rise in profit for the first half of 2012 driven by higher sales as the company gears up to take advantage of growing domestic requirements.

For the six months to June 2012, net income rose to IDR2.1trn (US$223m) from IDR1.7trn in the same period of last year while revenues were up 30 per cent to IDR8.2trn

According to finance director Tju Lie Sukanto, in the first half of the year Indocement spent about 15 per cent of its total capital expenditure, which was allocated at between US$200-250m. Most of Indocement's capital expenditure in the first half of the year was geared towards the development of its grinding mill in Citeureup, Bogor, which will have an output of 1.9Mta. The mill is scheduled for completion in 2013.

Indocement plans to begin the construction of a 4.4Mta brownfield cement plant located in Citeureup which is expected to be completed by 2015. It also plans to start the construction of two new greenfield cement plants with production capacities of 2Mt and 2.5Mta reach, one of which will be located in Central Java and the other outside of Java, according to reports in the Jakarta Post.