Cocoa
butter and powder firm PT Davomas Abadi says it is diversifying into Asian
markets to counter declining sales in Europe and the US.
“Last December, we tried to sell to China. The
amount was insignificant. We are also studying the potential market in Japan
and Korea,” Davomas corporate secretary Hasiem Wily said during his company’s
public disclosure on Friday.
Despite the initial Chinese deals, Hasiem said
that Davomas was “clueless” about the Asian market interest for cocoa products.
Hasiem said that the Asian cocoa-product
market was different from its European and American peers. For example, he
said, China used cocoa products in its pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries,
while Western countries were making chocolate or biscuits.
Cocoa powder prices have topped US$4,000 a
ton, outperforming cocoa butter at $3,500 a tons, according to Hasiem.
“We see an increasing trend in cocoa powder
prices, but a decline in cocoa butter,” he said.
Davomas has a total capacity to produce
140,000 tons of cocoa powder and butter a year.
However, Hasiem said that the company’s
utilization only reached 40 percent of its total capacity.
“It is because of declining demands from
Europe, which is suffering from a crisis. We will be okay if our utilization
reaches 60 to 70 percent,” Hasiem said.
Declining demand in the first nine months of
2011 saw sales drop to Rp 729.44 billion ($80 million), down 63.81 percent from
Rp 1.94 trillion in the same period in 2010.
The dip led Davomas to a Rp 56.41 billion
operating loss between January and September of 2011 from a Rp 59.84 billion
operating profit in the same period of 2010.
Davomas recorded net losses of Rp 122.14
billion in the first nine months of 2011, also down from Rp 108.39 billion in
the same period of 2010.
Hasiem said that the company estimated sales
of Rp 1.3 trillion in 2011, declining by 23.85 percent from Rp 1.61 trillion in
2010.
“We see gloomy business in 2012. This year,
our performance will likely to be similar to 2011. We see no significant
development,” Hasiem said.
He played down talk that Davomas would change
its core business to boost income.
“We will stay with our business. We have
intentions to look for strategic partners. However, we have no serious
discussions with any particular parties,” Hasiem said.
Hasiem said that the company’s plans to buy a
51.86 percent stake in cocoa processor PT Uniflora Prima, according to
documents submitted to the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) in 2011, were since
dropped.
“The deal was called off, although Uniflora
said that it was just delayed. If Uniflora wants to build partnership with us
again, it has to start from the beginning.” (rcf)
The Jakarta Post
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