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ublicly listed paper producer Kertas Basuki Rachmat Indonesia expects to export about 78,000 tons of paper this year, or about 60 percent of the company'€™s total production.

In April, Kertas Basuki started to export to Vietnam, followed by Singapore a month after. It also eyes Thailand, Malaysia, and China as its new export destinations.

The company'€™s president director Sonie Budi Wijaya said Monday the company was able to export part of its paper production following the operation of new machine, which has boosted production capacity to 270,000 tons a year.

'€œDuring the first half of this year, the new machine produced around 50,000 tons of paper,'€ Sonie added.

Kertas Basuki produces paper for office and consumer use with grammage of 45 to 80 grams per square meter (gsm). It has two paper machines, which produce printing, writing and wrapping papers (packaging grade) in the form of rims and rolls.

Last year, the firm booked Rp 34.7 billion (US$2.6 million) in revenues, 192.5 percent higher than a year earlier, but suffered net losses of Rp 17.5 billion. The losses were due to higher operational expenses and weaker production as the company was still relying on its old machine, which had a capacity of only 10,000 tons per year.

This year, Kertas Basuki has allocated $1 billion for capital expenditure sourced from syndicated loans. '€œThe entire capex is being used to improve the production performance and maintenance of both machines,'€ finance director Rizalsyah Riezky said.