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Wednesday, March 2, 2011

India second largest importers of Indonesian coal in 2010


Wednesday, 02 March 2011

Indonesia, the world largest coal exporter, shipped 24.68 million tons of coal in January 2011, which was 1.19 percent higher Y-o-Y but 10.84 percent lesser M-o-M. Indonesia has exported 284.83 million tons of coal including semi coking and LRC coal in year 2010, according to our source who is familiar with Indonesian coal exports.
Exports to China
January 2011 has witnessed a drop in Indonesia's coal exports to china by 43.63 percent compared to December 2010 exports. January exports of Indonesian coal to china amounted to 4.796 million tons as against 8.510 million tons in December 2010. Last year Chinese's utilities have imported more Indonesian coal than Indian Utilities. Out of Indonesian Coal Exports in 2010 China accounted for 74.570 million tons which is around 26.18 percent of the total coal exports.

India 2nd largest Importer
India became the second largest importer of Indonesian coal in 2010. 47.593 million tons of Indonesian coal has been imported both by government and private utilities of India in 2010. India’s January 2011 imports of Indonesian coal have jumped significantly. India has imported 6,099,932 MT of coal in January 2011 compared to just 3,885,454 MT in a month ago or 56.99 percent higher than December imports. In 2010 Indonesia has exported 16.70 percent of its total coal exports to India.

Top five Indonesian coal importers in 2010 were China, India, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.

India reduces import duty for Indonesian coal
India has introduced special reduced rate of import duty for Indonesian coal since January 2011. Thereby Indonesian coal enjoys 2% cheaper import duty in India compared to other origins of coal. According to market players, Indonesian coal is subjected to a duty of 3 percent as against 5 percent for other origins of coal.

Indonesian coal traders must hold IUP OP KPP
Early January Indonesia has implemented temporary coal export ban on coal traders until 4th of February. After a month of ban, finally Indonesia has allowed few coal traders to resume coal exports. According to government officers, as of 18th February, Indonesia has issued 63 trading or export licenses to Indonesian coal trading companies. Still few hundreds of applications were in process with the mining department. This ban led to lower exports by around 10 percent compared to December 2010 exports.

Indonesian ban on coal below 5600 GAD by 2014
As per the news sources Indonesian government is contemplating a ban of coal with calorific value below 5600 Kcal/kg on GAD basis by 2014. In order to get export eligibility LRC coal producers asked to upgrade their coal to 5600 GAD or more. If not miners will have to depend on home market. This move of the Government makes the message clear that value added product should only be exported. This action encourages miners to establish additional facilities and generate additional employment or to sell the raw product within the country as more domestic consumption is predicted in the coming years. Export of Value added product enhances the inward remittances and fetches more taxes and revenue.

However, experts and some major stake holders are of the opinion that the proposed ban by 2014 may not be practical due to non availability of commercially viable upgrading and conversion technology at this moment. Also the infrastructure needed for this type of mammoth activity of beneficiation and upgrading of coal needs large sums of investments. According to industry sources, worldwide the upgrading technology is in the nascent stages and yet to be established. At this moment there is no proven technology is available to upgrade coal at a workable cost. Due to these reasons and also to protect the export income many big coal producers are lobbying with the Government to dilute the seriousness of the proposal.

Low calorific value coal accounts for almost 60% of the total Indonesian coal production or exports an exporter said. International coal prices are still at lower level and it will not be workable for upgraded coal to compete with coal that has been produced from other countries including new comers such as Mozambique and Mongolia. Once the logistical bottlenecks are cleared, these two countries become big competitors for other coal producing countries. In this context how the proposed ban on below 5600 GAD coal would take a shape is much crucial and an acid test for the Government to sustain the heavy pressure from LRC coal producers and also politically an important year due to Presidential/general elections.

Indian investment in LCV coal mines
According to industry sources, there was a spate of Indian companies’ investment in several low GCV coal mines in Indonesia with a motive of attaining fuel security. According to available data, more than two dozen Indian companies have already invested in coal mines in Indonesia and some of them are already in production. Majority of Indian investors in Indonesia were end-users and the purpose of investment was purely captive use. The reaction of this captive investor’s is yet to be seen if the bans seriously considered and implemented by 2014. In which case they might claim exemption for their captive usage in India or withdraw their existing investments and channelize the same to other upcoming promising destinations like Mongolia, Mozambique and Australia. One of the serious investor opined that in case such ban is inevitable the Indian investor arbitrage on the cost of upgradation Vs migrating to other viable destinations. However, one trend is clearly emerging that Indian coal mine investments abroad are seeing steady increase. The evidence of recent acquisition of Western Australia’s Griffin Coal Mines for a whopping US$ 750 Million by Lanco group or aggressive investments in Mozambique, South Africa and Queensland shows the urge of Indian industry main agenda of attaining a level of continuous and reliable coal supplies. Understand US coal started coming to India. One of the major cement plants in west coast India contracted for 7 shipments of high sulphur, high calorific value coal from US on CFR terms at much cheaper cost than Indonesia. According to a major power developer in India, majority of the Indian private power plants would start operating by end 2013, hence all the Indian industries are seriously scouting for acquiring mines abroad. In view of the current uncertainty of high calorific value coal mines availability in Indonesia and the threatening proposal of ban below 5600 gad coal making them to focus on other origin coals. Moving higher calorific value coals by capesize vessels are seen as the cheaper remedies to counter the vagaries of Indonesian low calorific value and high moisture coals with stringent regulations and threat of recurring Force Majors.

ICRP
Indonesia already successfully implemented monthly coal reference price for its coal. Coal producers were asked to comply with the government declared index prior to conclude any short term and long terms coal sales agreement with its buyers. Indonesian HBA have raised fifth straight month and it was at US$ 127.05 in February 2011.

Tags :import duty on coal by India, raw material, steel mills, power plant,

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