The coal industry is considered to still play an important role for energy needs in the next few years. For this year, the trend of high coal prices continues. Not only that, the European Union's plan to ban Russian coal exports will further encourage demand, especially from the European market. At least, in recent years Indonesia's coal production has always been above 500 million tons. In 2018, coal production reached 557.77 million tons. Production then increased to 616.16 million tons in 2019. Production had dropped to 565.69 million tons in 2020 before increasing again in 2021 to 608.69 million tons. For this year, production is targeted to reach 663 million tons. Referring to the records of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM), Indonesia's total coal resources reached 91.6 billion tons. Meanwhile, coal reserves reached 31.7 billion tons. "We have to manage this coal resource in such a way that its use is guaranteed for domestic supply and for investment or state revenue for export," said the Director of Coal Business Development Lana in a virtual discussion recently. A number of coal companies are also noted to be focusing on maintaining production in the midst of the current rising price trend. For example, PT Bumi Resources Tbk (BUMI) has coal reserves of 2.46 billion tons and coal resources of 10 billion tons.
BUMI is still facing weather challenges in its production activities. "Coupled with the priority we have set for domestic sales (for) our DMO fulfillment rather than exports. (This) has resulted in several export delays," said BUMI Director Dileep Srivastava to Kontan.co.id, Sunday (10/4). Dileep added that the fulfillment efforts for the export market are expected to be pursued as the weather improves. Meanwhile, for the first quarter of 2022, BUMI's coal production is expected to reach around 17 million to 18 million tons. Meanwhile, Head of Corporate Communication of PT Indika Energy Tbk (INDY) Ricky Fernando admitted that the increase in coal prices had a positive impact on the company's performance. "The increase in the reference coal price has a positive impact on the company's performance. Throughout 2021, Indika Energy recorded a Net Profit of US$ 57.7 million and a Core Profit of US$ 227.9 million," Ricky told Kontan recently. However, Ricky has not been able to elaborate further on the amount of production until the first quarter of 2022. Indika Energy is the third largest coal producer in Indonesia through PT Kideco Jaya Agung and PT Multi Tambangjaya Utama (MUTU).
Kideco has reserves of 651 million tonnes and resources of 1.37 billion tonnes. Meanwhile, MUTU has reserves of 40.6 million tons and resources of 75.2 million tons. PT Golden Eagle Energy Tbk (SMMT) seeks to take advantage of the momentum of the rising coal price trend to boost the company's performance in 2022. Golden Eagle Energy President Director Roza Permana Putra said that this year SMMT targets coal sales to grow 15% -20% compared to last year's realization. previously. For information, in 2021, SMMT's coal sales volume rose 67% to 2.04 million tons. Referring to the targets mentioned earlier, SMMT's coal sales this year can reach the range of 2.34 million tons to 2.44 million tons. "The increase in coal sales is expected to have an impact on our financial performance, both on a top line and bottom line," explained Roza in an incidental public expose, Friday (8/4). It is believed that this target can be achieved considering that coal prices continue to soar in the global market. This is in line with global coal demand which is predicted to grow 2% in 2022, where China and India are still the largest consumers of this commodity. In addition, the economic sanctions imposed on Russia have increased the demand for coal in the European region. SMMT also looks at the opportunity to sell coal in order to meet the energy needs of the Blue Continent. SMMT is recorded to have a mine area of 8,526 ha with a total resource of 647 million tons and a total reserve of 428 million tons.
