ublicly listed specialty fats producer PT Wilmar Cahaya Indonesia (CEKA) is maintaining its conservative target in regard to the company’s revenues and profits, as uncertainty surrounding crude palm oil (CPO) continues in the world market.
“We are still wait-and-see mode in regard to the business situation, therefore we have only set a target for revenue and profit to increase 15 to 20 percent from 2016, in hopes we will see an increase in demand [for specialty fats],” CEKA’s director, Hairuddin Halim, told the reporters during a press conference in Jakarta, recently.
The company’s revenues increased 18.10 percent to Rp 4.11 trillion from Rp 3.48 trillion in 2015. The company also booked Rp 250 billion net profit last year, an increase of 133.6 percent from Rp 107 billion in the previous year.
In the first quarter of this year, the company booked revenue of Rp 1.23 trillion, a 34 percent year-on-year (yoy). However, its net profit fell 52 percent to Rp 36 billion yoy owing to the increasing price of CPO.
“We produced the products using CPO stock at a high price, and then world CPO prices plunged and we had to lower our retail prices,” Hairuddin said.
The downward trend in CPO prices continued in April at around US$655 to $717.50 per ton from between $685 and $750 per ton on March and between around $725 and $820 in February. CPO is the second-biggest export commodity in Indonesia after coal. (ecn/bbn)
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