PTBA reduces Tarahan loading time

State coal mining firm PT. Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam Tbk. said that the expansion of the Tarahan coal port facility had significantly reduced loading time and cut vessel queue in the port.

Production director Sukrisno told Petromindo.com in an interview Tuesday that Tarahan coal port could now directly serve panamax size vessels without transshipment, thus reducing loading time from around 60 hours previously to 35 hours.

“No more queuing now. In fact now Tarahan port had a lot of idle time,” said Soekrisno.

Sukrisno said water depth at Tarahan now is 17 meters, from 12 meters previously.

He added that in November, PTBA had loaded 770,000 tons of coal, higher than pre-expansion level of around 600,000 tons per month. ”In fact, stockpile is running thin, because coal transportation capacity from Muara Enim to Tarahan can not be expanded.”

Sukrisno said limited capacity of state railway company PT KAI to transport coal had created headache for PTBA. “Discussion with PT KAI is ongoing to find quick solution to increase coal transportation capacity.

PT KAI is contracted to transport 7.2 million tons of coal from Tanjung Enim mine to Tarahan, but the company is having difficulty to increase transportation capacity as it was unwilling to invest to fix the old railway. (godang)