Demand for coal on the domestic and international markets remain stable despite report of import cut by China, Executive Director of The Indonesian Association of Coal Producers (APBI) Supriatna Suhala said.
The market of low rank coal remains stable with growing demand from coal fired power plants offsetting import cut by China, Supriatna told Coal Trans Asia Conference in here on Monday.
He said growing demand for coal especially for low calorie coal has boosted production.
It is obvious from the production in the first three months of this year reaching 95 million tons, he pointed out.
"Seeing the trend we believe the production target of 390 million tons would be exceeded," he said.
Last year, the country`s coal production totaled 386 million tons, and 75 million of the production was for domestic market with the rest exported.
In 2013, the domestic requirement is expected to rise to 80 million tons, Supriatna said.
He said the Chinese ban on imports of low rank coal will certainly had impact on the market as China is a major market for Indonesia`s coal.
Indonesia has exported 90 million tons of coal to China per year.
Supriatna, however, said he believed Indonesia will not find much difficulty in disposing of its coal production.
Exports could be directed to India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and other ASEAN countries, he said.
He said demand for coal in developing economies would continue to climb to feed coal-fired power plants.
India is building coal-fired power plants up to 100,000 megawatts in capacity, he cited saying India, therefore, would need to import coal estimated to reach 150,000 tons per year.
"Therefore, I am optimistic the market demand for coal would remain strong and continue to grow in the next 10 years," he said.
In addition, there has been no confirmation of the Chinese plan to ban imports of low rank coal, he said.
(H-ASG/O001)
Editor: Jafar M Sidik
Copyright © ANTARA 2013
