Home » Business » It turns out that this is the reason for Indonesia to import coal when supply is abundant

It turns out that this is the reason for Indonesia to import coal when supply is abundant

Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia Indonesia’s coal supply is very abundant, of which more than 500 million tons of coal are produced annually, and about 70% of it is exported. However, in fact, Indonesia is still importing coal.

Then, what causes Indonesia to still import coal in the midst of abundant domestic supply?

In response to this, the Executive Director of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI) Hendra Sinadia said that this coal import was carried out because the coal specifications required by certain industries were not available in Indonesia. He said that coal imports are usually carried out by the steel industry.

“Usually import metallurgic coal for steel mills. We don’t produce much,” he explained to CNBC Indonesia, Monday (06/09/2021).

He explained that the import of coal is especially for the type of coal coking coal or metallurgic coal commonly used for steel production and mine processing and refining (smelters). Meanwhile, the coal produced by Indonesia is mostly thermal coal which is commonly used for power generation.

He mentions, metallurgic coal These are usually widely available in Australia, so it is most likely that Indonesia imports from Australia.

“This is for steel mill raw materials, because spec the right coal is from Australia,” he continued.

Production coking coal In Indonesia, according to him, there are still few, but he doesn’t know exactly how much. He instead suggested that the government should consider imports coking coal can be counted as DMO fulfillment.

“Still a little,” he said when asked how much production coking coal Indonesia per year.

Indonesia’s coal imports are recorded in the Handbook of Energy and Economic Statistics of Indonesia 2020 data released by the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM).

Indonesia was recorded to have imported 8.76 million tons of coal in 2020, up 18.5% compared to imports in 2019 which were recorded at 7.39 million tons.

In fact, in terms of national coal production, in 2020 production was recorded at 563.73 million tons, down 8.5% compared to production in 2019 which reached 616.16 million tons.

Meanwhile, coal exports in 2020 were reported to reach 405.05 million tons, down 11% from 2019 exports which amounted to 405.05 million tons.

There is no detailed explanation as to why coal imports continue to increase. However, for coal produced in the country, it is a type of “steam coal” or thermal coal.

As is known, Indonesia is the third largest coal producer in the world, after China and India. China produced 3.9 billion tonnes of coal in 2020, and India reached 756.5 million tonnes.

[Gambas:Video CNBC]

(wia)


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