Falling fuel cost lifts hopes for China Resources Power
Electricity firm income jumps 68 per cent after power price rises to beat forecasts
China Resources Power expects this year's fuel cost per unit of output to fall at least 5 per cent while electricity price will be stable, which will bode well for its profitability.
The electricity arm of state-backed China Resources (Holdings) yesterday posted a net profit of HK$7.48 billion for last year, up 68 per cent from 2011 and 7.8 per cent higher than the HK$6.93 billion average estimate of 25 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters.
Excluding foreign-exchange gains or losses, underlying profit surged 129 per cent, CR Power said.
The profit growth was mainly due to a 9.3 per cent fall in fuel cost per unit of output and a 5.1 per cent rise in average power selling price.
Overall output was flat as the commissioning of new plants offset a 7 per cent drop in same-plant generation due to the country's weaker industrial output and higher output by hydro plants amid more-than-normal rainfall. About 92 per cent of its generation capacity is coal-fired.
President Wang Yujun said the 5 per cent decline in fuel cost was a preliminary estimate based on the assumption that this year's average coal price would be similar to the level in the second half of last year.
