Semirara earnings grow 23%

By Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star) | Updated February 25, 2016 - 12:00am

http://www.philstar.com/business/2016/02/25/1556379/semirara-earnings-grow-23

MANILA, Philippines – Consunji-led Semirara Mining and Power Corp. posted higher earnings in 2015 amid the improved performance of its power business which offset the negative output of its coal venture.

The company said its 2015 net income amounted to P8.45 billion, 23 percent higher than the P6.86 billion profit a year earlier.

Income contribution from the operations of its two 300-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant under Sem-Calaca Power Corp. (SCPC) rose 70 percent to P5.5 billion from P3.22 billion.

“The improvement is mainly due to the good performance of the 2x300-MW power plants with a record high gross energy generation of 3,959 gigawatt-hours (gwh),” the firm said.

Gross energy generated was 39 percent higher from 2,840 gwh in 2014.

Meanwhile, total energy sold increased 11 percent to 3,754 gwh from 3,383 gwh the previous year.

The company’s power business also started registering income contributions from the commissioning of its 2x150-MW plant under Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. (SLPGC), which amounted to P86 million.

“The 2x150-MW of SLPGC is still on commissioning stage, though contracted energy already amounted to 222 GW with different effectivity period,” Semirara said.

SLGPC, which was scheduled to start operating last December, will start running commercially by the end of the month, Semirara chairman and CEO Isidro Consunji said earlier.

On the other hand, the coal segment contributed P2.87 billion to the bottom line, which was 21 percent lower from P3.64 billion in the previous year.

Coal production and sales were recorded at 7.98 million metric ton (MT) and 8.4 million MT, respectively. These were lower than the eight million MT produced and 8.9 million MT sold in 2014.

While the 2015 numbers were lower, Semirara said coal production targets were met, despite the two-month suspension of operations due to the Panian mine accident in July, due to favorable weather conditions which enabled higher operating days in the fourth quarter compared to budget.

The Department of Energy suspended the firm’s mining operations for 64 days, after a landslide incident on July 17, 2015 which took the lives of nine miners.

Weighing on the coal business’ performance is the lower composite average price of coal at P1,945 per metric ton, a nine percent drop from P2,127 per MT in 2014, a result of continuous softening of global coal prices.