ArsipBerita.com

Floods inundating Queensland have disrupted Australian coal production, and in turn may offer opportunities for Indonesia to boost coal sales.

With Australia now reportedly being unable to produce 90 millions tons of coal, the floods would automatically place Indonesia ahead of Australia as a preferred global coal supplier, Indonesia Coal Society director Singgih Widagdo said Friday in Jakarta.

We only need to see exactly how much Australia is unable to produce. Indonesias production, on the other hand, is continually increasing. This year alone were estimating production of 320 million tons, based on the governments calculation, he said, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

Australia has long maintained a dominant position in coal exports to the Asian region, with significant supply positions (in descending order) in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and India.

Australia had forecast coal exports of 150 millions tons this year, and was confident the figure could continually increase to up to 184 millions tons in 2014.

Director general for mineral and coal at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, Bambang Setiawan, said the Australian floods would not significantly affect Indonesias coal industry, and local coal prices were indeed experiencing increases.

The price increases are not only caused by that [Australian floods]. Coal prices usually trail increases in oil prices, Bambang said.

The Indonesian government had set the price benchmark for coal with a gross energy value of 6,322 kilocalories a kilogram at US$112.40 in January, up from $103.41 last month.