Mercator plans to buy more Indonesian coal mine

Indian shipping firm Mercator Lines is planning to acquire a 50 million ton coal mine in Indonesia. Mercator expects to invest $50-75 million for acquisition, a senior company official said.

He said that the company is evaluating acquisition options, in terms of quality of coal, coupled with the necessary infrastructure needed to transport this product. Mercator has leveraged its Singapore-based subsidiary Mercator Lines Singapore for its coal mining activities.

It?s targeting an annual production of nearly one million ton from their existing Indonesian coal mines during the fiscal year of 2009, a senior officer said as quoted by The Economic Times of India.

The company said on May 14, 2008 it had acquired an economic interest in two coal licenses in Indonesia. The company did not specify the exact location of the mine, but said that coal resources at the licenses are 15 million tons.

In order to leverage the opportunities to transport coal from its overseas mines, Mercator Lines also plans to add two more ships with a capacity of 93,500 Dwt (dead weight tonne) each, on a time charter basis, over the next 18 months.

The company?s current fleet capacity is 27 vessels, which includes 12 vessels to carry bulk transport. (*)