RMKE And KAI Raise Coal Loading Capacity From TBBE In-house Mines Of Up To 4 Million MT

Coal (photo: dock. intermediate)

JAKARTA - PT RMK Energy Tbk (RMKE) through its subsidiary, PT Truba Bara Banyu Enim's in-house mine (TBBE) continues long-term cooperation with PT Kereta Api Indonesia (KAI) until 2032.

President Director of the Company, Vincent Saputra said, in this cooperation agreement, TBBE and KAI agreed to increase the loading capacity of coal at the Gunung Megang loading station which was previously 1 million mt to 4 million mt in 2025.

In addition to increasing the loading capacity of TBBE trains, RMKE and KAI also added a new route for coal transportation.

"So, TBBE can transport coal from 2 routes, namely Gunung Megang Station to Simpang Station and Tanjung Enim Baru Station (new loading stations) to Simpang Station," he said in a statement to the media, Tuesday, August 27.

Vincent added that the two routes have a distance of 111 km and 147 km, respectively. Users of coal transportation services by train will be subject to transportation rates that will be influenced by fuel prices and the Indonesia Coal Price Index (ICI).

"The increase in the capacity of the _loading_ and train routes is expected to increase the volume of the RMKE train unloading at Simpang Station and loading the RMKE barge at Keramasan Port," he continued.

Simpang Station is the final station for the demolition of coal trains which is integrated with Keramasan Port, these two coal logistics facilities are assets belonging to RMKE.

Vincent said the volume of RMKE's train unloading would increase in line with the increase in coal loading capacity provided by KAI at the TBBE in-house mine.

In 2024, KAI will provide train capacity to Simpang Station as many as 17 trains per day or equivalent to transportation cargo of 17 million mt of coal per year. The realization of train demolition at Simpang RMKE Station is still 11 million mt of coal in 2023 or still underutilized by 65.4 percent due to operational constraints experienced by RMKE at 4Q 2023 and the unfavorable weather at 1Q 2024 which caused a decline in mining production in South Sumatra.

In the future, Vincent continued, KAI has the potential to increase the maximum capacity of coal transportation to intersection stations by 26 trains per day by increasing facilities and infrastructure at TBBE loading stations and other loading stations that are KAI customers.

"This long-term cooperation supports RMKE to achieve its long-term target of 20 million mt of coal service transportation in the future," added Vincent.

In addition to increasing the loading capacity of coal in TBBE subsidiaries, RMKE has also collaborated with several potential mines in the South Sumatra area, one of which is PTBA and is targeted to be realized by 2025 so that the TBBE loading capacity can be increased in utilization.