Mixed first-quarter results for Indonesia's top three

Indonesia's top three cement producers have posted a mixed set of results for 1Q13, as Semen Indonesia and PT Indocement report a rise in net profits but Holcim Indonesia feels the pinch from an increasingly competitive market.

The country's largest cement producer, state-owned PT Semen Indonesia reported a 22.3 per cent increase in net profit to IDR1.24trn in the first three months of this year, thanks to a 20.4 per cent rise in sales volumes to 4.94Mt. The state-owned cement producer enjoyed higher sales volumes during the period as production capacity benefitted from the operation of two new lines.

Indonesia's second-largest producer, PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa posted a 1Q13 net profit of IDR1.15trn, around 15 per cent higher than the IDR999.86bn a year earlier.  Revenue reached IDR4.22trn during the first three months of the year, increasing by 9.6 per cent compared to IDR3.85trn in the same period of last year. Indocement said it ran its factories at a full capacity of 18.6Mt. Capacity at this HeidelbergCement group company is set to be increased by 10 per cent as a new 1.9Mta cement mill is scheduled for completion in the fourth quarter of this year.

PT Holcim Indonesia, meanwhile, saw a slight drop in sales volumes due to increasing competition. The company reported a net profit of IDR184.31bn (US$18m), a decline of around 26 per cent on the IDR249.27bn in the same period of last year. However, revenues rose by 7.3 per cent to IDR2.16trn in 1Q13 compared to IDR2.01trn in the same period of 2012 but sales volumes were down 1.6 per cent to around 2Mt. Holcim is also adding new volumes this year with the completion and commercial operations of its new Tuban 1 plant set for June. The new plant is expected to produce at least half of its 1.7Mta capcity by year-end. 

“Holcim Indonesia saw decline in sales performance in the first quarter of the year due to increasingly competitive cement market, a combination of new cement players and the increase of capacity of existing players,” Holcim corporate communication manager, Diah Sasanawati, said.