ICMA expects 7% increase in coal export

By Cepi Setiadi

Indonesia Coal Mining Association (ICMA) expects Indonesian coal export to go up by 7 percent this year from 305 million tons last year.

ICMA Executive Director Supriatna Suhala said that the positive economic growth of both China and India would be the main drive for the increase.

'With about 7.5 percent economic growth, demands for electricity will go up, and so will the demand for coal,'' he said to Petromindo.com Tuesday.

Coal price has dropped to US$ 109 from US$ 120 per ton. But he expects the price to stabilize throughout 2012 thanks to the shutting down of nuclear power plants in Japan, Germany and other European countries, resulting in the search for alternative energy sources such as gas and coal for power plants.

ICMA expects up to 390 million tons of national production in 2012 despite the general production decline during the first two months of the year.

Editing by Er Audy Zandri