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Coal mining companies demand clarity over whether they can use foreign ships
The shipping regulation, slated to take effect on May 1 after a two-year delay, could cut coal exports significantly.
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Coal is being loaded onto a barge on the Mahakam River in Samarinda, East Kalimantan. (AFP/Bay Ismoyo)
I
ndonesian coal mining companies are looking for clarity about a top government official’s vague claim that a Trade Ministry regulation that would have required the companies to only use Indonesian-flagged ships starting May has been revoked.
The Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) wrote in a statement on Friday that mining companies wanted the Trade Ministry to “immediately issue” a new regulation to revoke the problematic Trade Ministry Regulation No. 82/2017 “to ensure clarity for coal importers and exporters”.
APBI chairman Pandu Sjahrir explained that the regulation, slated to take effect on May 1 after a two-year delay, would cut coal exports significantly.
“Less than 2 percent of coal exports are being handled by domestically owned ships,” he said, adding that “several coal export shipments have been cancelled” because of confusion over the regulation’s implementation plan.
The association was responding to Coordinating Maritime Affairs and Investment Minister Luhut Pandjaitan’s statement on Wednesday that “the President had decided at our last limited meeting to revoke the ministerial regulation”.
“I think that decision was made last week,” he said during a live-broadcast press conference on YouTube.
Contrary to Luhut’s statement, Trade Ministry secretary-general Oke Nurwan, who used to oversee the implementation of the regulation when he served as international trade director general, told The Jakarta Post on Friday that the regulation was still intact.
