ITMG to diversify into power business
Thursday, April 3 2014 - 01:42 AM WIB
?Our parent company Banpu has expertise in coal-fired plants, so we can use this expertise to enter the power plant business,? Finance Director Edward Manurung said as quoted by The Jakarta Globe. ?We are now studying which project will be suitable for us and benefit our shareholders.?
He said it was still too early to say how much money would be needed for the planned investment in power production as it would entirely depend on the size of the project.
Indo Tambangraya has built a coal-fired plant with two turbines and a production capacity of 7 megawatts each for its port operation, Edward said. In the future, the capacity would be much larger and the company plans to sell electricity to state utility company Perusahaan Listrik Negara.
Indo Tambangraya is targeting sales of 29.7 million metric tons of coal this year, a slight increase from the 29.1 million tons it sold last year.
Hartono Widjaja, marketing director at Indo Tambangraya, said China would remain the company?s biggest market for coal sales, but that demand from India was catching up.
?Demand from India continues to increase, because they don?t produce enough coal of their own,? Hartono said. Twenty-eight percent of the company?s total sales volume last year went to China. India was the company?s fourth-largest market with 8.6 percent of the total sales last year.
Indo Tambangraya president director Pongsak Thongampai believes that coal price has bottomed out and expects the coal price index to improve toward the end of this year. Banpu controls 65 percent of Indo Tambangraya. (*)