Indonesia May Use Giant Floating Dock From Japan to Boost Coal Shipments

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Indonesia, the world’s second-largest coal exporter, may build a floating dock worth as much as 100 billion yen ($1.2 billion) with Japan to enable speedier transfer of the fuel from barges to bigger ships.

Construction of the so-called mega-float, to be moored off the coast of East Kalimantan, is likely to start in 2014, said Hidenobu Teramura, a director at Japan’s trade ministry. The dock, longer than eight Airbus SAS A380 superjumbos, will be designed to cut the time taken to load a Panamax ship to one day from seven, Japan’s transport ministry said.

The project to build what would be the world’s biggest floating coal terminal is part of Japan’s goal to export infrastructure technology and revive a stagnating domestic economy, worsened by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami. Indonesia is looking to spur mining in Kalimantan, among its most resource-rich areas, where inadequate infrastructure is impeding development.

“That’s definitely one way to address Kalimantan’s infrastructure problems that have become a major concern for foreign and local investors,” Supriatna Suhala, executive director at the Indonesian Coal Mining Association, said in a telephone interview.

Coal will provide the bulk of the fuel for power generation in Southeast Asia, where demand for electricity may triple 2030, Wood Mackenzie Research Consultancy said May 12. Companies plan to build 35 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Singapore, it said.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-20/indonesia-may-use-giant-floating-dock-from-japan-to-boost-coal-shipments.html