Semirara registers net profit of P7.5b

Manila Standard Today
By Alena Mae S. Flores 
Mar. 07, 2014 at 12:01am

Semirara Mining Corp. said Thursday net income after tax jumped 18.9 percent in 2013 to P7.54 billon from P6.34 billion in 2012, on higher coal and power sales. 
Semirara Mining, a unit of DMCI Holdings Inc. of the Consunji Group, said consolidated earnings per share stood at P21.13 in 2013, up from P17.85 in 2012. Semirara said in a disclosure to the stock exchange the coal and power segments contributed P1.8 billion and P5.9 billion to the company’s bottom line, respectively. 
Semirara said the coal business increased 1.8 percent year-on-year to P5.34 billion from P5.24 billion in 2012. 
The company sold higher volume at 7.6 million metric tons last year, up from 7.2 million MT in 2012 as lower cost of sales per metric ton offset the 11-percent drop in coal average price to P2,185 per MT in 2013 from P2,455 in 2012. 
“Despite lower operating days, material movement increased by 7 percent at 82 million bcm [bank cubic meter] from 77 million bcm in 2012. With higher strip ratio, coal production dropped by 5 percent at 7.9 million MTs from 8.2 million MTs in 2012,” it said. 
Semirara said the power segment also registered an 84.8 percent growth to P4.72 billion in 2013 from P2.55 billion in 2012, as a result of the 48-percent increase in energy sold at 3,460 gigawatthours, from 2,365 GWh in 2012. 
The company said two plants of the 600-MW Calaca coal-fired power plant in Batangas were already running after the rehabilitation of Unit 1 in 2012, thus increasing coal usage of both plants by 35 percent to 2.1 million MT from 1.5 million MT in 2012. 
Unit 1 registered higher availability at 83 percent compared to 31 percent in 2012. Average price also improved slightly to P4.22 per kilowatthour from P4.09 per kWh in 2012. source