Below is a list with tagged columns and company profiles.
Today's Headlines Mining
On 6 July 2023 Indonesia Investments released the June 2023 edition of its monthly report. In the report we present a number of analyses of topics (all related to the economy, politics and social matters) that were relevant in Indonesia in the month of June 2023.
The Indonesian government plans to allow an earlier submission of a request for the extension of mining concessions. Stakeholders say that this would considerably strengthen the investment climate in Indonesia's mining sector, specifically the coal mining industry, on the back of improved legal certainty.
In the first three quarters of 2018, Indonesia's total national coal production reached 319.08 million tons, or nearly 63 percent of the government's full-year 2018 target (set at 506.9 million tons), according to the latest data from the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry.
The Indonesian government took another major step forward in becoming the majority stakeholder (through state-owned mining holding company Indonesia Asahan Aluminium, or Inalum) of mining giant Freeport Indonesia that operates the lucrative Grasberg mine in Papua.
After the much publicized signing by the Indonesian government and US mining giant Freeport McMoRan of the Heads of Agreement regarding the sale of a stake in Freeport Indonesia (the operator of the lucrative Grasberg mine in Papua) on 12 July 2018, we have not heard much about the deal that is valued at USD $3.85 billion.
Although Astra International, one of Indonesia's biggest diversified conglomerates, has been affected by subdued car sales in Indonesia in recent years, the company remains comfortably within the top ten of biggest listed companies in terms of market capitalization on the Indonesia Stock Exchange.
Local banks in Indonesia remain hesitant to disburse loans to companies that are engaged in Indonesia's mining sector due to the high degree of bad debt in this sector. Hence, credit disbursement to the country's mining sector continues to shrink. On the one hand, it is positive that Indonesia's banking sector becomes less dependent on the volatile movement of mining commodity prices.
Coal demand remains high, particularly due to robust demand from China, the world's largest coal importer. This brings the projection for the full-year 2018 coal price to the range of USD $98.50 - $107.00 per metric ton. So far this year the coal price (ICE NewCastle Coal January 2018) surged around 4 percent, while in full-year 2017 the price had surged 57.09 percent.
The rising coal price is a great boost for the corporate earnings of coal mining companies as well as the share prices of those companies that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Newcastle Coal Futures (January 2018 delivery) touched USD $97.10 per metric ton at the end of last week, up 26 percent so far this year. Meanwhile, prices of energy commodities are expected to rise further in the remainder of the year.
Production and sales of heavy equipment in Indonesia is recovering more markedly in 2017 on the back of rising activity in the country's mining and construction sectors. Between 2012 and 2015 sales of heavy equipment plunged sharply in Indonesia. In 2016 a modest recovery was seen. This year, the recovery of Indonesia's heavy equipment sector is progressing at a faster pace.
Latest Columns Mining
One of the weak points of Indonesia, one that seriously hurts the country’s investment climate as well as foreign confidence, is regulatory uncertainty. In 2009 the government of Indonesia introduced Law No. 4/2009 on Mineral and Coal Mining (New Mining Law) which caused a shock in Indonesia’s natural resources sector as it includes several new policies that make investors think twice before investing in Indonesia as the consequences of these new policies are far-reaching. However, a possible new amendment to the law causes new concern.
A selection of corporate earnings reports (covering net profit and revenues for full-year 2014) of Indonesian companies that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) is presented by Indonesia Investments below. The companies are categorized by sector: (1) agriculture and mining, (2) basic industry and chemicals, (3) miscellaneous industry, (4) consumer goods, (5) property and real estate, (6) infrastructure, utilities and transportation, (7) finance, and (8) trade, services and investment.
When we look at activity in the precious metals markets over the last decade, one of the biggest developing trends has been the increase in both demand and production output from emerging Asian economies. For most of this period, Indonesia has been participating with these trends - especially on the production output front. As recently as 2009, Indonesia was responsible for 130 tons worth of gold production, as mining activity becomes more efficient and increased investment resources flow into the country.
The Indonesia Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) announced that foreign and domestic direct investment realization in Indonesia totalled IDR 463.1 trillion (USD $37 billion) in 2014, a 16.2 percent increase from the previous year and exceeding the target that was set previously. This is a positive result as 2014 was expected to be a rather bleak year in terms of direct investment amid political uncertainties triggered by the (fragmented results) of the country’s legislative and presidential elections.
Mining in Indonesia includes a part or all stages of coal and mineral exploration and exploitation. Minerals are defined by law number 4 of 2009 on Mineral and Coal Mining (“Mining Law”) as inorganic compounds which possess specific characteristics and compositions in the form of ores. Coal is defined as sediment of organic carbon which is naturally formed from plants. Mining in Indonesia does not include any activities related to exploration and exploitation of geothermal, oil and gas and ground water.
The Indonesian government plans to tender 25 new geothermal development sites with a total combined capacity of 1,225 megawatt (MW). These 25 projects will require a total of USD $4.6 billion worth of investments and help to achieve the government’s target to raise the portion of geothermal energy in the country’s energy mix to 7.1 percent by 2025. These 25 projects are in addition to the 31 geothermal development projects that are currently being constructed and which should be operational by 2020.
Indonesia is facing the risk of becoming a net importer of energy by 2019 as the nation’s energy demand will reach 6.19 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (boepd) whereas the domestic energy supply will only reach 6.04 million boepd by that year. Provided that the economy of Indonesia remains expanding at a pace of +5 percent (year-on-year) while investments in energy exploration do not rise accordingly, Southeast Asia’s largest economy will become dependent on foreign energy supplies.
Indonesia Investments presents a selection of corporate earnings reports (covering the first 9 months of 2014) of Indonesian companies that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX), categorized by sector: (1) agriculture and mining, (2) basic industry and chemicals, (3) miscellaneous industry, (4) consumer goods, (5) property and real estate, (6) infrastructure, utilities and transportation, (7) finance, and (8) trade, services and investment. The tables display both net profit (loss) and revenues, together with year-on-year (yoy) growth.
The new Joko Widodo-led government aims to triple domestic geothermal power production within the next five years in an effort to meet ever-increasing power demand in the world’s fourth-most populous country and to shift to more environment friendly energy sources (rather than the over-reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and coal). Although Indonesia is estimated to contain the world's largest geothermal energy reserves, the country only uses about four percent of its geothermal capacity potential.
Production is still not back on track at Freeport Indonesia’s Grasberg mine in Papua as around 1,000 workers have not showed up for work since the second week of October. These workers refuse to work after a series of (fatal) incidents that led to concern about safety policies. In May 2013, 28 Freeport Indonesia workers died after a tunnel collapsed. More recently, in late September 2014, four workers died after a giant haulage truck collided with another vehicle (carrying nine passengers) at the Grasberg mine.
