In an interview with Bloomberg on 18 December PT Timah President Director Sukrisno forecast a 15% increase in net income next year, based on higher sales and a recovery in tin prices. It also expects to benefit from reduced dividend payments to the Indonesian government. However in a separate report by the Koltan business news service Corporate Secretary Agung Nugroho said it was cancelling plans to build a tin smelter in Myanmar.
Sukrisno said that tin sales in 2014 would be “as much as 26,000 tonnes” and could rise by 15% in 2015, while total Indonesian exports next year were expected to be 60,000 – 70,000 tonnes. Timah expects the dividend it needs to pay the government to be cut to 30%, from as much as 55% currently, to give it more room for development, Sukrisno said, without giving a timeframe. The company was expected to post net income at 553.9 billion rupiah (US$44 million) for 2014, with growth of 26% next year, according to mean estimates of analysts in Bloomberg surveys. The government plans to reduce the dividends of state companies, Finance Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said recently. President Joko Widodo, who took office in October, has started a shake-up of state enterprises that included replacing the board of PT Pertamina, the oil and gas company.
Timah has decided to call off a plan to build a tin smelter in Myanmar as it could not find an ideal location for the plant and due to concerns over security, according to Koltan. The company had previously talked about producing 12,000 tpy of tin in Myanmar and had secured a 10,000 hectare exploration concession in Pubyien-Tamok, Tanihary. The company had begun an exploration programme in June this year and Sukrisno recently told the Jakarta Post that smelter construction could start in 2015.
