JAKARTA (Yosefardi) – PT Astra Agro Lestari Tbk (AALI) raised its capital expenditure (capex) to Rp3.2 trillion fro this year, a 23% rise compared to Rp2.6 trillion allocated for 2012.
The capex expansion is in line with the company’s investment in expanding planted area and increasing production capacity of units in downstream industry.
The company is optimistic to complete the establishment of new CPO mill in fourth quarter of this year with capacity of 600,000 tons per year. This CPO mill will commence operation in January next year.
AALI produced 116,300 tons of crude palm oil (CPO) last month, grew slightly from 115,600 tons in August 2012. August output was substantially lower than July (130,900 tons), which was also lower than July 2012 (135,200 tons). As a result, in eight months of 2013, AALI’s CPO output grew only 7.2% to 951,399 tons.