PTBA buys more locomotives to increase transportation capacity

IDX-listed State owned coal mining company PT Bukit Asam (PTBA) has bought 230 new train carriages s and 44 new locomotives to boost the capacity of the company?s railway system to transport its coal from its mining sites in Tanjung Enim, South Sumatra to the Tarahan coal terminal in Lampung, Kontan daily reported on Saturday.

At present, the company operates 47 locomotives and 2,249 carriages to transport its coal to the Tarahan coal terminal.

Joko Pramono, the corporate secretary of the company, said that the operation of new locomotives and carriages would be able to increase the transportation capacity of the company?s coal train to between 1.3 million tons and 1.4 million tons per month from about 300,000 tons per month at present.

He said that the increase in the coal transportation capacity would enable the company to reach sales target of 21 million tons this year. About 12 million tons of the sales target will be exported, and the other 9 million for the domestic buyers mostly to PLN?s coal-fired power plants.

Joko said that the company was also expanding the capacity of the coal terminal to 25 million tons a year in order to be able to handle the increase in the coal transportation capacity.

A part of the coal production would be also used for the operation of the company?s power plant which would be built in the second semester of this year. The power plant will have two generators with capacity of 8 MW each. (*)