Indonesia seeks revised production plans from miners through new portal

Indonesia's Ministry of Mineral and Energy Resources has told miners to apply for any revisions to production and budget plans (RKAB) for the remainder of the year through the newly developed system E-Work Plan and Cost Budget.

Miners need to submit requests for revised RKAB plans for the current year via the e-RKAB application by attaching the application letter that was previously submitted via electronic mail before July 31.

The development has come with several coal miners are waiting for an approval from the government for their revised production quota for this year.

Miners need approval from the government to produce more coal in a year than estimated in their annual mining plans submitted at the start of the year. The permission from the government for the revised production and budgets usually comes by this time of year but delays in approvals to revised output plans had refrained some miners from offering cargoes, market participants said.

On Sept. 26, coal miner PT Insani Baraperkasa issued a force majeure notice, saying it will not be able to fulfill its supply commitments until further instruction, contingent on the energy ministry approving its RKAB.

As a result, the company had to refrain from selling the fuel both in the domestic as well as overseas market.

The notification said the company must make revisions to its production plans taking into account the remaining mining period in the calendar year as well as submit the required supporting documents for its targets.

While some miners were hopeful the launch of new e-RKAB system will speed up the process of getting approval for the desired revised quota, another producer of low-CV coal said not all miners were well acquainted with the process of submitting their production quota on the new portal.

Some sources informed that they have submitted their revised RKAB plan on the portal, however, they are not sure of the timeline for the approval. "Post review, ESDM needs to give approval by 30 days from submitting the revised RKAB plan with relevant documents," an Indonesia-based miner said. One of the miners, however, is also hopeful of the authority's nod by one to two weeks.

The Indonesian spot market recently witnessed a sudden uptick in prices, backed by surge in demand from China that witnessed domestic supply constraints and India that looked for seaborne thermal coal in the wake of spiraling power consumption in the country. Moreover, supply tightness also aided the rise in prices.

Platts, part of S&P Global, assessed the FOB Kalimantan 4,200 kcal/kg GAR price at $59/mt on Oct. 5, up from $50.50/mt at the start of September.

Meanwhile, Indonesia last month introduced a fresh guideline for the country's coal and mineral miners, asking them to provide production plans for the upcoming three years, compared to one year plans submitted earlier.