MTD Group enters port business with coal terminal In Indonesia
Tuesday, July 1 2008 - 01:36 AM WIB
The company, through its member company PT Cigading International Bulk Terminal (CIBT), has been awarded a 32-year concession to develop, run and operate the international coal terminal at the Port of Cigading in Cilegon.
The Port of Cigading is owned and operated by PT Krakatau Bandar Samudera (KBS), a subsidiary of Indonesia?s PT Krakatau Steel, which granted CIBT the rights to develop the Cigading coal terminal.
CIBT will provide coal-loading facilities at the port, MTD Group?s managing director Datuk Azmil Khalid told Malaysian reporters at the port ground-breaking ceremony last Friday.
Azmil said managing the coal terminal operations marked the group?s first foray into the port business.
?What we are doing is taking one part of the KBS? port operations -- which is the coal -- and build a dedicated coal terminal that can handle capesize vessels and load coal produced at Indonesia?s Sumatra, South Kalimantan and Central Kalimantan,? he said.
Capesize vessels refer to ships with cargo-carrying capability of more than 100,000 metric tonnes.
Azmil said construction of the coal terminal would begin in the third quarter of this year with operations scheduled next year.
He said there was currently no deepwater port in Sumatra catering to big size vessels like panamax, but the Cigading coal terminal would be able to handle capesize vessels even at the initial phase of operations.
Construction of the port will be carried out in three stages, Azmil said.
In stage one, the Cigading coal terminal Is expected to be able to handle an annual throughput of 10 million metric tons per year.
Under stage two and three, the combined coal terminal handling capacity will increase to more than 30 million metric tons per year, Azmil said.
?Over US$40 million investment will be injected for phase one. We will then go into phase two and three over the next 34 to 36 months and these will have a combined Investment of more than $60 million,? he said.
Azmil said several firms, including most of the coal producers in Sumatra, had already expressed interest in using the Cigading coat terminal.
?As of now, we have already received seven enquiries from interested well-known players wanting to take up the space at our port terminal,? he said.
CIBT is a 95 percent subsidiary of Sinomast Metacorp (Labuan) Ltd, which Is a joint-venture company between MTD Group and PT Bintang Sinomast Ltd.
PT Bintang Sinomast is an international company with experience and expertise from shipowning barge and tug operations, mining engineering and bulk cargo logistics.
Indonesia is the world?s largest thermal coal exporter, producing about 200 million metric tonnes per year of coal, of which 80 percent is being exported.(*)