Semirara 9-month income down 9%

Semirara Mining Corp., the country’s biggest coal producer, posted a 9-percent decline in its consolidated net income to P4.71 billion in the first nine months of 2012 from the P5.2 billion recorded in the same period last year.

Of the P4.71 billion it earned in the first nine months, P3.21 billion came from its coal business while the remaining P1.5 billion came from the power generation segment, Semirara Mining explained in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange Wednesday.

According to Semirara, the decline in earnings can be attributed to the lower average selling price of both coal and energy.

The 11-percent decrease in the volume of coal sold and low coal prices resulted in a 22-percent drop in coal revenues as of end-September compared to year-ago levels.

Semirara added that the volume of coal sold to local market dropped by 5 percent year-on-year while export was down by 21 percent.

Meanwhile, the 74-percent increase in the power offtake of cement plants from Semirara allowed the company’s power generation segment to post a 6 percent increase in earnings in the first three quarters of the year.

This improvement can be attributed to the completion of the rehabilitation work for Unit 1 of the 600-megawatt Calaca coal-fired power plant which started operating only last August, as well as the improvement in the availability and use of Unit 2 of the same facility.

This year, Semirara Mining expects its profit to reach P7 billion, up by 17 percent from the P6 billion posted last year, as it sees better performance from its power generation business.

Its revenue goal this year of P28 billion to P29 billion would be driven by its coal and power generation businesses. The expected increase in its profit level may be attributed to increased electricity sales as a result of more efficient power facilities.