KUALA LUMPUR: The prolonged dry weather due to El Nino is expected to affect SD Guthrie Bhd’s Indonesian production in the next two years.
Chief executive officer for upstream Indonesia Adrianudin Raj Azman said SD Guthrie’s production in Kalimantan is much more impacted by the dry weather compared to its yields in Sumatra.
“There is a possibility of about 10 per cent reduction for next year and it could be higher in 2028 based on the historical trend.
“But then again we are also looking at some of the best practices that we have done and I can say that our palm age is much better now compared to what it was before.
“We have a relatively big area of young palms, which are growing quite well and we are yet to see the impact on these areas.
“So it’s still too early for me to tell now,” he told a press conference at the company’s briefing for its third quarter performance here today.
However, Adrianudin added that the dry weather is anticipated to return between February and March next year.
“We are seeing good rainfall in November and we are hoping that the situation will improve based on the current weather forecast that we have.
“But if the rain does not come as we expected, the impact will be much greater,” he said.
For the third quarter ended Sep 30 , 2026, SD Guthrie net profit dropped 17.3 per cent to RM773 million from RM935 million a year ago.
The group attributed this to lower earnings contributions from the industrial development, midstream and downstream segments.
Revenue for the quarter under review slipped 0.3 per cent to RM5.39 billion from RM5.41 billion in the same period last year.
On the cumulative nine-month period, the group logged higher earnings of RM2.32 billion from RM2 billion last year while revenue came in lower at RM15.03 billion from RM15.4 billion.
SD Guthrie’s shares closed 1.18 per cent or seven sen higher at RM6, valuing the company at RM41.49 billion.