Indonesia’s coal production to decline in 2014

The Indonesian Government has downsized its coal production target to 400 million tonnes in 2014 – a significant 21 million tonnes lower than production in 2013, according to Mr Syukhtar, general director for mineral and coal affairs at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources.
The Indonesian Government has downsized its coal production target to400 million tonnes in 2014 – a significant 21 million tonnes lower thanproduction in 2013, according to Mr Syukhtar, general director formineral and coal affairs at the Ministry of Energy and MineralResources.

The official said the plan has been proposed onthe basis of the government’s sector development policy, which aims toincrease revenue from raising the value of products rather than thequantity of production.

To this end, the ministry is alsoplanning to enhance its supervision over mining and distribution in thecoal and mineral sector and encourage the development of more relevantproducts for the industry.

Indonesia ’sdomestic coal consumption reached 72 million tonnes during 2013, and thefigure was expected to hit 95.5 million tonnes in 2014.

Alsoin 2013 the non-tax revenues from coal and mineral sector stood at 33.1trillion Rp, up 38 percent from that in 2012.

Syukhtar hasalso said that the implementation of the new law on mineral and coalmining which bans the export of raw materials effective from January2014, is bound to affect the trade and employment.

TradeMinister Gita Wiryawan also warned last month that the Indonesiaexports would drop in 2014 since about 62 percent of Indonesia ’sexports are chiefly raw minerals.

He reminded that, in essence, the implementation of the law will provide added value to Indonesia ’s natural resources.

In the short- term, the law would have adverse effect on employmentsector. But in the long- term, more workers will get employment if thereis development and increase in the number of industries using mineralresources as raw material, the trade minister said.

Meanwhile,Minister of Finance Chatib Basri noted that the decline in unprocessedmineral exports can also affect the country’s trade balance. However,the deficit might not grow too wide because the government is alsoreducing its oil and gas imports as a result of the new biodieselpolicy, he said.
 
According to the Indonesian Finance MinisterChatib Basri, Indonesia is expected to save 200 million USD in foreignexchange in 2013 after implementation of the biodiesel policy, and hopesits savings increase to 4 billion USD if the policy is fullyimplemented this year.-VNA

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