Indonesia's Antam revises up 2008 nickel sales

JAKARTA, Aug 29 (Reuters) - Indonesia's state-owned miner, PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ATM.AX) (ANTM.JK), revised on Friday its nickel sales target up by nearly 6 percent for this year from an earlier target to boost revenue as nickel prices soften.

The company now plans to sell 18,000 tonnes of ferro-nickel this year, up 5.88 percent from an initial target of 17,000 tonnes, Antam President Director Alwin Syah Loebis said in a statement.

"We plan to increase ferro-nickel sales in anticipation of lower nickel prices," Loebis said.

The company sold 17,723 tonnes of ferro-nickel in 2007.

Nickel prices at the London Metal Exchange have fallen about 22 percent so far this year on easing demand from stainless steel producers.

Nickel MNI3, a raw material used in stainless steel, dropped to $20,500 a tonne from $21,000 on Thursday on continuing concerns about demand from stainless steel producers, the biggest users of the metal.

Antam said sales of ferro-nickel in the first half of 2008 rose 18 percent to 8,570 tonnes from 7,268 tonnes in the same period last year.

Despite higher sales volume, the firm's revenue in the first six months of this year fell 7 percent to 5.570 trillion rupiah ($609.4 million) compared to a year ago, hit by weakening nickel prices.

Average prices of ferro-nickel received by the company in the first half plunged 31 percent to $12.38 per pound compared to $17.93 per pound in the same period last year.

Antam's gold sales volume rose 248 percent to 3,912 kg in the first half of this year compared to the same period a year ago.

Revenue from gold sales increased by 219 percent to 1.072 trillion rupiah in the first half compared to 336 billion rupiah in the first half of 2007.

Antam, which is 65 percent owned by the Indonesian government, is involved in the exploration and production of nickel ore, smelting of ferro-nickel, exploration and production of refining gold and silver, bauxite and iron sands. ($1=9,140 Rupiah)