Indonesia to prepare 33.75 million tonnes of coal stocks in 2009

Antara reported that Mr Purnomo Yusgiantoro energy & mineral resources minister of Indonesia said that the government will prepare 33.75 million tonnes of coal stocks in 2009. He said that the stocks would come from the government's 13.5% share of coal production by coal mining contractor companies, which reached 250 million tonnes per annum.

Mr Yusgiantoro said that in order meet its need for coal stocks PLN would establish a subsidiary, PT PLN Batubara. Coal stocks which had good quality could be exported while that of lower quality could be consumed by PLN. He added that "With these stocks, we could meet the need of the state owned power company PLN for coals."

Mr Pudji Widodo PLN head for coal energy affairs said last week that the company had placed orders with 24 coal producers in Australia. He added that "We are planning to import coal in order to meet our need for the fuel for our coal fired power plants in Suralaya, Tanjung Jati B and Paiton."

Mr Widodo said that the PLTUs would be operated by PT Paiton Energy Company from December 2008 to March 2009. He said coal producers at home had set their price at USD 116 per tonne while the price of coal to be imported from Australia was only USD 94 per tonne.
Source:http://steelguru.com