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Govt choosing coal ports to stymie illegal shipments
The government has determined a number of locations to be used as dedicated coal harbors in an attempt to minimize the illegal delivery of the commodity, for which Indonesia is the worldâs top producer and exporter
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The government has determined a number of locations to be used as dedicated coal harbors in an attempt to minimize the illegal delivery of the commodity, for which Indonesia is the world's top producer and exporter.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry's directorate general for minerals and coal had proposed 14 harbors to potentially be the main coal ports, located in the coal rich areas of Sumatra and Kalimantan, according to a proposal map presented late last week.
'We are currently in talks with the sea transportation director general. We hope the coal ports can be in operation next year,' coal director Bambang Tjahjono said.
The final decision about the number and locations of the ports would be declared by the sea transportation directorate general.
'In the main coal ports, the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry and tax office can perform supervision. They would also host surveyors so that we can avoid any illegal deliveries,' the Ministry's secretary for minerals and coal directorate general Paul Lubis said.
Currently, many coal mining firms have their own port facilities, where they can directly load coal onto vessels and deliver the commodity to buyers, making government supervision of the shipping activities difficult.
State-owned coal miner PT Bukit Asam (PTBA) expected that its port in Tarahan, Lampung, would be one of the main coal terminals.
PTBA corporate secretary Joko Pramono said no official talks had taken place regarding the possibility of utilizing the company's port.
'However, at this moment, Tarahan is the most suitable given its capacity, its integrated facilities, supporting facilities and administrative staff, such as its surveyors,' Joko said.
The company is currently expanding the port's facilities and capacity to be able to host vessels up to 205,000 deadweight tons (dwt) in size. At present the port can handle vessels that are 80,000 dwt large, at most.
The expansion, which is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year, will also make the Tarahan port able to load up to 25 million tons of coal, increasing it from the current capacity of 13.5 million tons.
Officially, the amount of coal being exported from Indonesia has been much lower than the amount received by the purchaser countries, such as China. The gap reached around 50 million tons last year, indicating a huge amount of potential revenue had been lost.
The country reported a total output of 421 million tons of coal last year, of which 349 million tons had been sold overseas.
This year, the country is aiming to halt the production increase and set the national target to the level of 421 million tons.
As of the end of the first half of the year, national production had reached 213 million tons, an increase of around 7.6 percent compared to the 198 million tons produced in the same period last year.
As many as 158 million tons, or 75 percent of the total coal production in the first half of the year, were sold overseas, while only 55 million tons were absorbed by the domestic market.
'JP/Raras Cahyafitri
