Adaro To Speed Up Plan To raise Coal Production

Banjarmasin, Oct 9 (Antara) - PT Adaro Indonesia said it will speed up plan to raise coal production from 40 million tons to 80 million tons a year. The company, one of the largest coal producers in the country, plans to increase coal production to help meet domestic coal demand and to serve 50 customers from 12 countries, its president director Garibaldi Thohir. In order to support the plan PT Adaro has just comp0leetd the construction of a new unit of floating transfer port for coal in Tabonio. "Today we just commissioned the floating transfer port to support effort to increase coal production of PT Adaro to 80 million tons a year," Garibaldi said here on Tuesday. He said the new floating transfer facility has a capacity of up to 60,000 tons per day or four times the capacity of the company`s floating cranes. The facility is to improve service through implementation of an integrated information system from mining to delivery, he said. He said as a company located deep in interior area far from the coast , logistics and transport facilities are vital to support distribution and supply. The new unit of floating transfer unit, which is larger in capacity , has been built in cooperation with PT Indonesia Multi Purpose Terminal, will contribute to improving the productivity of PT Adaro and its efficiency. It will also enable the company to reach its mid term production target of 80 million tons of coal a year, Garibaldi said. Director and Chief Operating Officer of Adaro Energy Chia Ah Hoo said construction of the bigger port shows that Adaro is not affected by the global economic crisis. "We are now facing a cycle of being declining, but out operational activities are running well and we are in the right track to meet the target this year," Chia Ah Hoo said. He said the port would strongly support logistics to strengthen endurance of Adaro`s business model which has gone through a number of cycle of being declining . The company`s coal transport goes through the river of Kelanis to the customers, he said. South Kalimantan Governor Rudy Ariffin said the port in Tabonio would serve not only to strengthen Adaro`s logistics but also constitutes an expansion of the port of Banjarmasin. High Adaro standard in port management in operation and security would serve a good example in new era of low cost management of port in the country.