Medan, North Sumatra (ANTARA News) - PT Toba Pulp Lestari Tbk. plans to increase pulp production to above 200,000 tons this year up from 175,989 tons last year.

"Hopefully the target will be achieved considering that the selling price of pulp early in 2011 at home as well as abroad is better than at the end of 2008, 2009 and even 2010," the company`s director, Juanda Panjaitan, said in Porsea, Toba Samosir district, here on Saturday.

He would not tell the export price of pulp but said it was profitable or above the production cost and higher than that of 2009 and 2010.

The price of pulp dropped in August 2008 from the years before when it could reach US$600 to US$630 per ton.

One hundred percent of the company`s production last year totalling 175,989 tons with sales recorded at 168,9031 tons was exported especially to China and Korea.

"The production target in 2011 is set based on demand which is quite good compared to that after the global crisis from 2000 to 2010," he said.

He said if the target was achieved that would be the second year for the foreign investment company`s production to reach production above 200,000 tons after in 2009 when production reached 210,607 tons.

Juanda said the management had indeed continued to raise the production in view of the company`s production capacity which reaches 240,000 tons a year.

On raw materials he said they are no problem. Besides relying on industrial forests the company has also continued developing smallholders` plantations.

Until now, he said the main plants that had been developed in the people`s land in Sektor Aek Nauli, Simalungun, North Sumatra, had already reached 688.3 hectares.

The manager of Sektor Aek Nauli, Karman Sirait, said the smallholders` plantations were mostly developed based upon a production sharing agreement with farmers.

"The smallholders` plantations would continue to be developed in line with the company`s plantation development program that has reached 8,000 hectares out of 11,002 available for it," he said.(*)

Editor: Aditia Maruli Radja
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