Publicly listed infrastructure-focused company PT Bukaka Teknik Utama is upbeat about generating higher sales increase, supported by rapid expansion of airport development in the country and region.

Bukaka marketing manager Omar S. Ahmad said on Monday that the company planned on building 75 passenger boarding bridges (PBBs) this year, an increase from 56 bridges that it produced last year.

“This year, we hope all the 75 won tenders will proceed smoothly, unlike last year when economic slowdown forced some clients to delay production even though we had already won the tenders,” he said at the sidelines of its 700th PBB product launch at its Cileungsi factory in Bogor, West Java.

The 700th product happened to be its first disabled-friendly bridge as well.

Omar said that it built around 70 bridges in 2014 before seeing the production drop to 56 the following year due to global economic slowdown.

The government’s ambitious infrastructure program has spelled positive for Bukaka as it sees local demands increase by 20 percent since President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo assumed the country’s top job 2014.

The government targets to have constructed 15 new airports built across the archipelago.

Out of the 75 bridges planned for 2016, as many 37 bridges were ordered by the government for airports in Cengkareng in Banten, Biak in Papua, Gorontalo, Ternate, North Maluku and Tarakan in North Kalimantan.

Meanwhile, the remaining 38 orders came from abroad, including India and Japan. Being one of only five PBB producers around the world, Bukaka has so far enjoyed vast international markets.

Among the future recipients of its PBBs is Japan’s Yamaguchi Ube airport on Honshu island. The airport will use Bukaka’s first disabled-friendly bridge that was introduced on Monday.

The rest of the PBB makers are Germany’s ThyssenKrupp, China’s CIMC-TiandDa and Japan’s Mitsubishi and ShinMaywa.

Bukaka operational director Saptiastuti Hapsari said that foreign countries made up for more than half of its product orders. Only 17 out of around 200 Indonesian airports currently use its products.

Since initial bridge production in 1991, it has so far exported 120 bridges to India, 98 to Japan, 97 to Hong Kong, and 62 to Malaysia.

Its export portfolio also comprises of 52 bridges to Singapore, 20 to Thailand, 10 to the Philippines, nine to Myanmar, and two bridges to each Brunei Darussalam, Bangladesh and Chile.

Septiastuti said that Bukaka hoped to penetrate the European and Australian market as well and that it was now in tender process with Australia.

As orders line up, it hopes to achieve at least 15 percent annual growth in net profit to around
Rp 67.35 billion (US$5.1 million) in 2016. Last year the bottom line dropped almost by 42 percent to Rp 58.56 billion as a result of economic woes.

However, in the first three months of this year, its net profits already amounted to Rp 21.52 billion, triggering optimism of an improved bottom line for the rest of the year.

The company is now also planning to change its official name to Kalla Bukaka to reflect its affiliations with the Kalla Group.

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