Coal briquette production still too small to meet demand

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s appeal to use coal briquette as the main fuel for cooking in households will be difficult to realize because the existing production of coal briquette is still too small to meet the potentially huge demand, Media Indonesia reported on Tuesday.

Minister for Cooperatives and Small and Medium Scale Companies Suryadharma Ali said in Jakarta on Monday that the country’s total coal briquette production of about 35,000 tons a year would not be significant to meet the demand.

“We need at least 730,000 tons of coal briquette a year,” he added.

He said that his office had been assigned to procure one million of coal briquette stoves to support the government’s program to promote the use of coal briquette in the country. The procurement of one million stoves would be part of the government’s long-term plan to provide 10 million coal briquette stoves for households.

Suryadharma, however, said that the project would be financially unfeasible because the current capacity of the coal briquette production is still too small to meet the demand. According to him, the coal briquette supply for one million stoves would reach at least 2 million kg or about 2,000 tons a day.

With this estimate, the current coal briquette production of 35,000 tons would be only enough for 15 days. To meet the demand, the production should be increased to 730,000 tons a year. (*)