Thai coal miner Banpu looks to India, Australia

News was prepared under the information support of Online Daily Newspaper on Hellenic and international Shipping "Hellenic Shipping News".

30 Jul 2008

Banpu PCL BANP.BK, Thailand's top miner, said on Wednesday it was seeking to develop its business overseas in coal-rich countries to ramp up its long-term growth on the back of rising coal prices. The company, also the fourth-biggest coal miner in Indonesia, now expects revenue to grow by more than half in 2008, rather than the 25 percent it forecast earlier, due to rising coal prices, chief executive Chanin Vongkusolkit told Reuters. "Over the next five years, our focus will still be on coal," Chanin said in an interview. "The price is good. Growth is accelerating. We have now adjusted revenue growth, expecting it to jump over 50 percent to 50 billion baht.
"Gross margin should also increase to more than 40 percent in 2008, up from 35 percent a year earlier."
Banpu raised its 2008 average selling price forecast to more than $70 a tonne, the third rise this year, from $60 a tonne due to rising global prices, Chanin said.
Its average selling price was $41.06 a tonne last year.
Despite unusually heavy rainfall, rising diesel prices and port congestion, Chanin said second-quarter results would come out higher than a year earlier.
"Thanks to rising coal prices, it's more than we had a year earlier," Chanin said.
Banpu was looking to expand and diversify its business in India or Australia after growing in Indonesia, China, Laos and Thailand, he added. The $3.25 billion firm plans to sell bonds, all in domestic markets, to refinance debt later this year, Chanin said.
Last month, Banpu spent $420 million on buying a remaining 78.40 percent stake in China's Asian American Coal Inc (AACI), using bank loans.
"We're considering a bond sale with a maturity date of no more than five years to replace our short-term debt," Chanin said.

Source: Reuters