L

isted cement maker PT Semen Indonesia reported a record high sales growth in the first quarter of the year, due to expanding production from some of its new cement plants.

According to figures from the Indonesia Cement Association, Semen Indonesia, whose shares traded under the SMGR code, sold 5.95 million tons of cement in the first quarter of the year, increasing by 20.4 percent compared to 4.94 million in the same period last year.

SMGR’s sales growth was higher than the increase of national sales volume, which stood at 8.6 percent to 13.58 million tons in the first quarter of the year from 12.5 million tons in the same period last year.

“Our high increase was apparently credited to our new plants Tuban IV, which has been fully operated, and Tonasa V that has only operated at about 70 percent of its capacity. Its full operation is scheduled for next February,” SMGR corporate secretary Agung Wiharto said.

Located in Tuban, East Java, SMGR’s Tuban IV contributed about 750,000 tons to total production while another plant Tonasa V produced around 600,000 tons, according to Agung.

Given the robust increase in sales volume in the first quarter, SMGR is expecting that its revenue in the first quarter of the year will rise to 21 percent compared to the same period last year.

“Revenue is a result of sales volume and price increase. We saw less than 1 percent increase in cement price in the first quarter,” Agung said.

The growing production and sales have helped the company grab a 43.8 percent share in domestic sales as of the end of March, increasing by around 4 percentage points from 39.5 percent in the same period last year. The market share is also slightly higher than the 43.5 percent it held at the end of February.

Meanwhile, the second-largest cement producer in the country, PT Indocement Tunggal Prakarsa (INTP), reported relatively flat growth in sales volume in the first quarter to 4.1 million tons.

INTP has said that it ran its factories at a full capacity of 18.6 million tons. However, the company is expecting to push production capacity by 10 percent this year from the operation of its new cement mill with 1.9 million tons in capacity in the fourth quarter of the year.

Another listed cement producer, PT Holcim Indonesia sold 2 million tons of cement from January to March, also a flat increase compared to the same period last year.

Holcim is expecting to see additional production volume this year with the completion and commercial operation of its new plant Tuban 1 this June. The new plant is expected to produce at least half of its production capacity of 1.7 million tons by the year end.

The national cement market is expected to continue in double digits at around 10 percent from a year earlier to touch around 61 million by the year end.

“Infrastructure and property projects will remain the driver for growth. We have seen higher growth of cement demand outside the Java area, particularly for infrastructure projects,” Rizky Hidayat of PT Mandiri Sekuritas said.

Maluku and the Papua area reported a combined 32.9 percent increase in sales volume in the first quarter of the year, according to figures from the cement association. Nusa Tenggara was the area with the second highest increase in sales volume by 26.2 percent.