Indonesia's Semen Gresik 2007 net profit up 37 pct

JAKARTA, March 24 (Reuters) - PT Semen Gresik Tbk SMGR.JK, Indonesia's largest cement firm, reported on Monday a better-than-expected 37 percent rise in 2007 net profit, boosted by a building boom and more efficient operations.

Southeast Asia's biggest economy has seen increasing investment on ageing infrastructure including toll roads, ports, airports and power plants.

State-owned Semen Gresik's net profit rose to 1.78 trillion rupiah ($193.9 million) rupiah from 1.3 trillion in 2006, beating analyst forecasts of 1.65 trillion rupiah.

Sales revenue rose 10 percent to 9.6 trillion rupiah, compared with 8.73 trillion last year.

Domestic demand for cement rose 6.6 percent to 34.2 million tonnes in 2007, due to infrastructure investments and urban property developments, although Gresik's domestic sales volume rose by only 1.6 percent. ($1=9,180 rupiah) (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, editing by Sara Webb/Ed Davies)