Berau Coal Purchases Two New Additional Barges

Berau Coal Purchases Two New Additional Barges

JAKARTA – Coal producer, PT Berau Coal Energy Tbk (BRAU), through its subsidiary, PT Berau Coal, is ready to purchase two additional barges in this year. The purchase aims to support Berau Coal’s coal shipping in Berau Regency, East Kalimantan.

BRAU President Director, Amir Sambodo, in information transparency in Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) on Monday (1/12) stated his office has allocated IDR 84 billion capital expenditure to purchase both barges.

IDR 84 billion budget comes from the firm’s initial public offering (IPO). He explained the use of budget from IPO has been approved by BRAU shareholder. “By purchasing two additional barges, the total barge purchased using the budget from IPO is 8 unit,” he asserted.

Meanwhile, BRAU Corporate Communication General Manager, Singgih Widagdo, added the new barge purchase aims to support domestic coal shipping. “To sell coal to export market or to other countries, we cannot use opened barges,’ Singgih told Kontan on Monday (1/12).

Amir also added in the beginning, the firm planned to purchase 25 barges using the budget from IPO. However, due to coal price drop, the management decided to only purchase 8 barges. Therefore, currently, the firm has operated 37 barges to support their coal distribution.

Singgih continued in 2015, Berau Coal targeted to produce 27 million tons of coal. This production number is higher than the firm’s coal production in 2014 of around 24.5 million tons. The production hike aims to maintain revenue growth even though coal price is still low.

“The increasing production target is not a problem since the current Berau’s production capacity reaches 29 million tons,” Singgih explained. (Kontan)