PT Bukit Asam Prima to tender 5 barges, get floating cranes

By Er Audy Zandri

PT Bukit Asam Prima, the wholly owned trading unit of IDX listed PT Bukit Asam, recently stated that it is in the process of tendering the purchase of five tug and barge units, and running a feasibility study to purchase several units of floating cranes.

"At roughly Rp30 billion each, the capital spent for the tug and barge should amount to almost Rp200 billion," a source in the company said to Petromindo.com, without stating when the company expects to acquire the units.

He said that the new tug and barge sets are of 300 feet sizes, to be deployed between jetties and anchorage points to transport PTBA's coal.

"In terms of floating cranes, we are currently cooperating with the Institut Teknologi Surabaya (ITS) to do the feasibility study," the source said, adding that it will take around Rp500 billion worth of capital for the purchase. Bukit Asam Prima currently deploys several floating cranes on charter basis to support PTBA's operation in Lampung and Bangka Strait.

"The initial idea is to replace these floating cranes with our own, in addition to put another unit in anchorage points such as the Tabaneo Anchorage," he said, without clearly stating how many units it plans to acquire. The source said that the fund to acquire these vessels will come from bank loans, with tender process initially planned to be started at the end of this year.

One of the key reasons why PTBA expects to gradually control its coal transport, said the source, is due to the risks it's taking when selling its coal on FOB On Vessel basis. "In addition, this is an increasingly prospective business, to sell our coal on CIF basis and handle the shipment ourselves. While demurrage can be avoided, because we are the one who ship our own coal and can easily channel those coal to various different markets, we can also show better responsibility with our own products," the source said.

Editing by David Mustakim