Semirara profits decline on lower power earnings

Published March 2, 2019, 10:00 PM By James A. Loyola

https://business.mb.com.ph/2019/03/02/semirara-profits-decline-on-lower-power-earnings/

Integrated energy company Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC), a unit of DMCI Holdings, Inc., reported a 15 percent decline in consolidated net income to P12.0 billion last year from P14.2 billion in 2017.

In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, SMPC said that, in its coal segment, production slightly slowed by 2 percent to 12.9 million metric tons (MT) from 13.2 million MT registered in the same period of 2017.

Continuous heavy rains in July and August caused slowdown in production in the third quarter.

With the lower production, coal sales dropped to 11.6 million MT, 12 percent lower than the 13.1 million MT in 2017. Uptake by domestic customers dropped two percent while coal exports sales declined by 22 percent due to lower production.

The 18 percent higher average selling price per ton offset the drop in sales volume, resulting in an increase in coal revenues by four percent to P30.7 billion from P29.7 billion in 2017.

SMPC’s coal segment booked core profits of P9.7 billion, eight percent better than the P9.0 billion in 2017.

SEM-Calaca Power Corp.’s (SCPC) gross generation declined seven percent year-on-year to 3,282 GWH from 3,515 GWH. Unit 2 was on maintenance shutdown for the first three months of the year, and the maintenance activities spilled over up to the first week of April.

Following a brief shutdown in March, Unit 1 ran continuously, save for a four-day shutdown in June, it ran continuously for 201 days before it was shut down in December 30 to start its Life Extension Program.

Sales volume decreased six percent to 3,342 GWH from 3,560 GWH in 2018 from the previous year. With 10 percent improvement in prices, SCPC’s total revenues increased three percent to P13.7 billion from P13.4 billion recorded in 2017.
Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp.’s (SLPGC) gross generation dropped 19 percent year on year to 1,368 GWH from 1,687 GWH.

SLPGC Composite average price per kilowatt hour decreased by 11 percent percent to P3.94 from P4.43. Sales volume declined by 20 percent as a result of the prolonged shutdown of SLPGC’s Unit 1.

Core profits of SCPC dropped 47 percent to P1.2 billion from P2.3 billion in 2017. Meanwhile, SLPGC’s core profits also recorded a 67 percent decrease to P1.0 billion from P3.1 billion year-on-year.

Net of eliminations, coal, SCPC and SLPGC contributed P5.9 billion, P4.5 billion and P1.6 billion, respectively, in 2018.