Integrated energy company Semirara Mining and Power Corp. set a record profit of P36 billion in the first nine months, up 250 percent from P10.3 billion it posted in the same period last year.
SMPC said in a disclosure to the stock exchange on Wednesday the nine-month net income also represented a 122-percent increase from the full-year net income of P16.2 billion in 2021.
Its exceptional performance was mainly due to elevated market prices, all-time high coal production and higher spot electricity sales volume.
“Historically, the third quarter is our slowest because of the rainy season and sluggish demand. But because of improved market prices, we did much better than expected,” said SMPC president and chief operating officer Maria Cristina Gotianun.
SMPC netted P10.2 billion in the third quarter, a 153-percent upswing from P4 billion in the same period last year.
The average selling prices of Semirara coal rallied by 122 percent from January to September to P5,224 per metric ton from P2,351 per MT a year earlier amid the surge in global index prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The average Newcastle prices climbed 191 percent to $353.80 from $121.70, while the average Indonesian coal index 4 expanded by 50 percent to $84.30 from $56.10.
SMPC said the nine-month coal production grew by 27 percent from 10.8 million MT to a record 13.7 million MT due to controlled water seepage levels in the Molave mine and better coal access in East Block 4 and South Block 5.
Meanwhile, SMPC’s power business posted a 216-percent increase in spot market sales to 1,546 gigawatt-hours from 489 GWh owing to a 5-percent uptick in plant availability, a 7-percent improvement in gross generation and its pivot away from bilateral contracts.
Its average spot selling price jumped 38 percent to P7.33 per kWh from P5.30 per kWh on recovering demand, higher fuel costs and thin power supply margins. Alena Mae S. Flores