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T Indika Energy Tbk, an integrated energy company, is targeting to increase its coal production up to 31 million tons this year from 29.1 million tons in 2010, says an executive.

Indika president director Arsjad Rasjid said by looking at the first quarter’s production of 7.6 million tons worth US$62.5 per ton, he was upbeat that the company could reach the target by year end.

“In the first quarter we can reach around 24.6 percent of this year’s target, so we are very optimistic we can achieve the target,” Arsjad said at the company’s public expose on Wednesday.

He said that 80 percent of the 31 million tons was already ordered under contracts, while the remaining 20 percent would be sold on
the spot.

Arsjad added that 70 percent of the total production would be exported to various countries such as India, China and Korea, while the remaining 30 percent would be sold in the domestic market.

The Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) said Indonesian coal miners expected to produce 340 million tons this year, an increase of 23 percent from 275 million tons in 2009. Twenty percent of that amount — around 70 million tons — will be allocated to fulfill domestic demand, while the remaining 80 percent will be exported.

Indika Energy director Azis Armand said the company had 651 million tons of proven coal reserves and 1.4 billion tons of potential coal reserves.

“The proven reserves have been recognized in four or five areas and we will acquire more areas to increase the proven reserves,” said Arsjad, adding Indika planned to increase its production capacity up to 50 million tons in 2012.

Indika Energy puts its strategic investments in the areas of energy resources, energy services, energy infrastructure, contract mining, coal transport and logistics, and power generation.

The company posted Rp 772.7 billion ($90.5 million) in net profits in 2010, a 6.5 percent increase from Rp 726 billion in 2009. The growing profit resulted from a total revenue of Rp 3.7 trillion, up 51.4 percent from 2009’s Rp 2.4 trillion, according to data released Wednesday.

The company will pay dividends of about Rp 385.3 billion or about 50 percent of last year’s profit, Azis said. He added that the company had declared final dividends payment of Rp 135.4 billion or Rp 26 per share, together with Rp 249.9 billion interim dividends paid in November 2010. (drs)