Indonesia Power fails to get coal supplier for Suralaya

PT.Indonesia Power (IP), a unit of state electricity firm PLN, fails to secure 1 MTPA of term coal supply for its 3,400-MW Suralaya power plant in Banten as suppliers are asking for prices above the company?s limit.

Suralaya General Manager Bambang Susianto told reporters on Friday that IP had held two tenders for this year, but only East Kalimantan coal miners PT.Kideco Jaya Agung and PT.Berau Coal participated and the price they asked was above company?s limit price of Rp.384,000 per tonne CIF (US$-Rp.9,100) for 5,100 Kcal/kg coal.

IP then conducted limited tender from amongst 49 small suppliers that had ben listed by the company, but also failed to get tonnage as 90 percent of their production failed to meet technical specification and another 10 percent that passed spec requirement were asking for prices of above Rp.384, 000 per tonne.

?The lowest price the tender participants offered was Rp.424, 000 per tonne,? he said.

IP needs some 1 MTPA of coal to supplement coal supply from state coal mining firm PT.Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam, which supplies around 5 million tonnes of coal annually.

Bambang said that IP shareholders? meeting held in Jogjakarta this week would decide whether to increase IP?s buying price or to ask for coal subsidy from the government. (godang)