Govt urges miners to limit export to lift price

By Bambang Atmaja

Vice Minister for Energy and Mineral Resources Susilo Siswoutomo urged coal miners in the country to play its role to help stabilize the price of the commodity by limiting export volume.

?If the miners want the price to increase, then they must control it (export). Please don?t let the government busy (trying efforts to defend coal price), while they (miners) keep on exporting more coal,? Susilo told Petromindo.com Thursday.

Indonesia is the world?s largest thermal coal exporter. The government has over the past year been campaigning to limit export including a possible introduction of export tax and export ban of low rank coal next year in a bid to maintain the country?s coal reserves for future domestic use.

Coal price has plunged by nearly 50 percent to around US$77 per ton from the peak level in 2011.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (ICMA) Bob Kamandanu also warned that overly excessive shipment of coal overseas would harm coal miners as it would further undermine price.

Editing by Reiner Simanjuntak