Govt predicts coking coal demand to rise next year

By Hisky Darmayana

The government predicts that national demand for coking coal to increase next year in line with planned construction of new smelter facilities in the country.

?Coking coal is needed as fuel in the oxidation reduction process in the smelters. We?re still calculating how large the coking coal total requirement will be for the smelters,? said Lydia Hardiani, a senior official at the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, on Friday.

She added that the ministry is also still making assessment on the seriousness of the country?s businessmen in realizing their proposed plans to build the smelters.

So far there are 82 companies which have submitted proposal to the ministry to build smelters before 2014 as part of a requirement to obtain export permit.

Lydia hopes that by next year the ministry could already come up with the final calculation on the coking coal requirement for the new planned smelters. She added that the government will seek the views of the businessmen on how much coking coal will be required.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak