PTBA welcomes coal port plan

State coal miner PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) welcomes plans by the Muara Enim regency administration in South Sumatra to develop a coal port, the local Sumatera Ekspres daily reported on Monday.

The paper quoted company corporate secretary Milawarma as saying that the coal port would allow PTBA to use river transportation particularly as the existing railway transportation system has a limited capacity.

But Milawarma acknowledged that PTBA had yet to be formally informed about the coal port plan by the administration.

As reported previously, the Muara Enim administration planned to build a coal port in the Gelumbang district.

Muara Enim is the production based of PTBA.

According Milawarma, PTBA has coal reserves of around 5.8 billion tons. But the capacity of the existing railway system is only 10 million tons per year. The development of the coal port would allow PTBA to transport coal through the local Musi river.(*)