Jakarta, July 25 - Indonesia's largest listed plantation company, PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk, said on Friday its first-half net profit rose 134 percent from a year ago, supported by strong palm oil sales.
The firm, controlled by Indonesia's top automotive distributor, PT Astra International Tbk, had previously reported a 20 percent increase in its crude palm oil (CPO) sales volume in the first half, paired with 58.9 percent rise in the average CPO price.
Astra Agro, which has a market capitalisation of nearly $3.5 billion, said in a statement that its January-June net profit climbed to 1.59 trillion rupiah ($174.3 million) from 682.5 billion a year ago.
Sales revenue rose 94.1 percent to 4.64 trillion rupiah.
Like many palm oil plantation companies in the region, Astra Agro is riding a boom in global palm oil due to demand from the biofuel industry and fast-growing China and India.
Palm oil--used in products from soaps to biodiesel-- rallied to an all time high of 4,486 ringgit a tonne in March, although have since fallen back 31.5 percent.
Indonesia has overtaken Malaysia as the world's top palm oil producer. It is expected to produce 18.4 million tonnes of CPO this year, up around 7.5 percent from 2007.
Astra Agro accounted for about 5 percent of Indonesia's total crude palm oil production estimated at between 17-17.2 million tonnes last year.
The company is aiming to boost its output by 7.5 percent this year to 990,000 tonnes on hopes of good weather, as it plans to plant oil palm on 60,000-70,000 hectares by 2009.