KONTAN.CO.ID - JAKARTA. Almost all coal producers from Indonesia target the China and India markets. On the other hand, China has limited coal imports. PT Bukit Asam Tbk (PTBA) devised a different strategy to overcome this problem. PTBA chose to penetrate other countries.

Commercial Director of PT Bukit Asam Tbk, Adib Ubaidilah, said that his company is now approaching markets in South Korea, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka because their economy is getting better. He also said it was possible that PTBA would target the Middle East market.

"Next year, we have won several tenders in Hong Kong and South Korea," Adib said. PTBA will also strive to market coal directly to end users in the hope of reducing the production chain.

PTBA is supposed to expand the export market, to take advantage of the current trend of rising coal prices. As an illustration, PTBA posted a production increase of 16.38% year on year (YoY) to 19.68 million tons in the third quarter of 2018. Meanwhile, PTBA's total coal sales increased by 7.83% YoY to 18.58 million tons.

PTBA's sales increased along with the export growth of 39.16% to 8.67 million tons. On the other hand, domestic sales fell 10% to 9.90 million tons.

PTBA's export sales increased as the average coal selling price increased by 13%. Just for information, the average coal price in Newcastle for the first nine months of 2018 grew by 27%, so the benchmark coal price (HBA) increased by 20% YoY. (Translator: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie)

Editor: Barratut Taqiyyah Rafie