Indonesia needs 15 Panamax vessels for coal shipment at home

The Indonesian National Shipowners Association (INSA) said that Indonesia would need at least 15 units of additional Panamax vessels to handle coal shipment in the country by 2010 during which the country's coal demand is expected to reach about 35 million tons a year.

The association's chairman Oentoro Surya said in Jakarta on Wednesday that the additional 15 units of Panamax vessels would be needed because the government's crash program to build a number of coal-fired power plants within the next three years.

He said that the procurement of a secondhand Panamax vessel with an age of between 10 and 15 years would cost between US$26 million and $390 million. "INSA members should take the advantage of the opportunity so that the national shipping companies could control the domestic coal shipment.

According to him, the local shipping companies at present handle about 60 percent of the domestic coal shipment, and foreign-flagged vessels control the remaining 40 percent. (*)