Semirara Mining and Power Corp. said Friday net profit in the first six months of 2018 rose 3 percent to P8.1 billion year-on-year.
Semirara said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange the coal business continued to benefit from stable benchmark prices while cushioning the impact of power plant shutdowns.
It said the coal business improved its margins year-on-year. Global coal prices dipped in April then recovered June.
Semirara owns the country’s biggest coal mining project in Semirara, Antique.
Coal output slipped two percent to 7.2 million metric tons from 7.4 million MT a year ago.
Coal production in the second quarter dropped by around one million MT to 3.1 million MT from 4.1 million MT in the first quarter.
Semirara said despite the lower production, coal sales rose 9 percent to 6.9 million MT from 6.3 million MT on year. Demand from domestic customers climbed 11 percent while coal exports increased six percent.
Semirara’s coal segment booked core profits of P7.2 billion, up 35 percent from last year’s P5.3 billion.
Gross generation of unit SEM-Calaca Power Corp. declined five percent to 1,311 gigawatt-hours from 1,383 GWH on year.
SCPC’s unit 2 underwent a maintenance shutdown until the first week April. Following a brief shutdown in March, Unit 1 ran continuously in the second quarter.
Electricity sales volume decreased three percent to 1,355 GWH from 1,401 GWH from the previous year.
SCPC’s total revenues, however, increased six percent to P5.7 billion from P5.4 billion posted in the same period last yea due to better electricity prices.
Gross generation of unit Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. dropped 46 percent on year to 442 GWH from 817 GWH. The composite average price per kilowatt hour increased 24 percent to P5.36 per kWh from P4.33, partially offsetting the 41-percent decline in sales volume as a result of the shutdown of SLPGC’s Unit 1.
SLPGC’s Unit 2 ran continuously starting on April 16 until June 18 when the transmission line encountered a line fault. Unit 2 has been operating smoothly, generating at full capacity of 150 MW following the brief outage as a result of the line fault.
