JAKARTA -- Indonesia's state-owned mining holding company, Mind ID, on Thursday reported 9.8 trillion rupiah ($691 million) in consolidated net income for the first nine months of the year on the back of surging prices of coal and some key metals.
The figure represents a significant rebound from the 1.4 trillion rupiah net loss the company suffered in the same period of 2020. Revenue rose 35% to 63.8 trillion rupiah during the latest period. Profit doubled between July and September, from 4.7 trillion rupiah in the first six months of this year.
The company named coal, gold and tins as the "three biggest" revenue contributors.
Mind ID, fully owned by the Indonesian government, is the majority shareholder of publicly-listed coal miner Bukit Asam, nickel and gold miner Aneka Tambang, also known as Antam, tin miner Timah and copper and gold miner Freeport Indonesia. It fully owns aluminum producer Indonesia Asahan Aluminium, and has a 20% stake in the local unit of Brazilian mining group Vale, which runs a major nickel operation on Indonesia's Sulawesi island.
Bukit Asam earlier this week reported a 176% increase in net profit to 4.8 trillion rupiah in the January-September period, as revenue rose 51% to 19.4 trillion rupiah. The company attributed the profit jump to "the global and national economic recovery" that has pushed up demand for coal.
Prices of crude oil, coal and other commodities have soared in 2021. Contributing to the jump in energy prices have been slowing fossil fuel investment and worries that demand will spike during the Northern Hemisphere winter.
Coal prices have more than tripled since the beginning of the year, with the benchmark thermal coal price in Asia hitting a record high earlier this month of $269 per ton, although it has since declined in the past few weeks.
Bukit Asam in a press statement said it was looking to ride "the momentum of international coal price increases" and is planning to raise the export portion of its total sales to 47% by the end of December, from 37%.
Antam and Timah have yet to release their January-September financial reports. Antam posted 1.16 trillion rupiah in net income in the first half of 2021, reversing its 159.4 billion rupiah loss in the same period of 2020, while Timah reported a 169% increase in net profit to 270 billion rupiah.
The companies have enjoyed a boost from soaring prices of key minerals including nickel, tin and copper that have reached record levels this year.
Additional reporting by Ismi Damayanti.