So far, 48 coal vessels are set to depart from Indonesia, a senior Trade Ministry official said on January 18, although the country’s broader coal export ban remains in place until the end of the month, as reported by Reuters.
The world’s biggest thermal coal exporter implemented an export ban on January 1 as coal inventories at local power plants were at critically low levels, to avoid widespread outage.
“As of today, 48 vessels have been released from a total of 29 companies,” senior official Indrasari Wisnu Wardhana said.
Trade Minister Muhammad Lutfi said once miners fulfilled their Domestic Market Obligation (DMO), they would be allowed to resume exports.
Authorities have blamed the supply crunch on poor compliance of the DMO policy that requires coal miners to sell 25% of their output to local buyers, with a $70 per metric ton price cap for power generators.
Energy Minister Arifin Tasrif said, out of 578 coal miners, 47 have exceeded DMO requirements while 32 miners have fulfilled between 75% to 100% of their DMO.
