Agung Wiharo

Agung Wiharo, president of state-owned PT Semen Gresik, said sales in November and December are expected to decline because of the long holidays.

Investor relations manager of PT Semen Gresik, Agung Wiharto, estimated that sales on the domestic market will improve in the next several months after declining in the first 5 months of this year.

Wiharto said sales by its unit in Gresik, East Java, and from PT Semen Padang in West Sumatra and Semen Tonasa in South Sulawesi totaled only 6.3 million tons in the first half of this year.

However, the market began to improve in June and the trend is expected to continue until October, he said.

He said with an increase of 3 per cent in sales this year the company would be able to operate at 90 per cent of its installed capacity.

"The meeting has approved an interim dividend of 30 percent of Gresik's 2002 net profit which did not consolidate the Semen Padang unit," Gresik's investor relations manager, Agung Wiharto, told Reuters.

Agung Wiharo, president of state-owned PT Semen Gresik said sales in November and December this year are expected to decline because of the long holidays.

In the first 10 months of this year sales on the domestic market already reached 25.25 million tons or an increase of 8.6 per cent from the same period last year.

Exports totalled 6.46 million tons or an increase of 3.5 per cent from the same period last year.

Agung estimated that exports will reach 8 million tons this year.