Tarakan (Port)

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Indonesian coal port blocks ships from leaving due to security concerns

Authorities from at least two Indonesian coal ports have blocked ships from leaving to the Philippines due to security concerns after a spate of ship hijackings in the southern Philippines, an Indonesian government official said on Wednesday. The growing frequency of maritime attacks by Islamist militants is for the first time affecting coal trade between the Southeast Asian neighbours. Indonesia, the world’s largest thermal coal exporter, supplies 70 percent of the Philippines’ coal import needs. “The situation in the Philippines is considered not safe and some of our ships were hijacked,” Umar Aris, Indonesia’s acting director general of sea transportation, told Reuters. Shipping permits to the Philippines were no longer being approved at the ports of Banjarmasin and Tarakan in Indonesia’s Kalimantan, an area home to some of the biggest coal mines operated by Adaro Energy and Bumi Resources. It was not clear how much of Indonesia’s coal exports were affected by the shipping restrictions at the two ports.

Bukit Asam’s coal port to be inaugurated

Transportation Minister Ignatius Jonan is scheduled to inaugurate a coal port belonging to state-owned coal miner PT Bukit Asam (PTBA) in Tarakan, Lampung. Improving the capacity of the company’s coal port was part of a joint commitment and effort to improve synergy among state-owned enterprises, the Transportation Ministry said in a statement. The ministry says that with the recently built quay, PTBA’s coal port in Tarahan will become Indonesia’s biggest port, with the ability to accommodate vessels with dead-weight tonnage (DWT) of 210,000. Currently, Tarahan coal port can accommodate three vessels with a capacity of 210,000 DWT, 80,000 DWT and 10,000 DWT all at once.

Police foil wood smuggling attempt to Malaysia

The East Kalimantan Police have foiled an attempt to smuggle 365,772 cubic meters of Indian rosewood, locally known as sonokeling, to Tawau, Malaysia. “We boarded the KLM Satria Bahari boat near the islands of Sipadan and Ligitan on Feb. 25,” the police’s Adj. Sr. Comr. R. Djarot Agung Riadi said in Balikpapan, East Kalimantan, on Saturday. Riadi said the KLM Satria Bahari, captained by Iwan, had sailed to Tarakan, North Kalimantan, from Probolinggo, East Java. He said Satria Bahari’s trip was legal because the captain had shown a valid sail permit. However, as soon as it arrived at Tarakan, the vessel continued its trip to Tawau without mooring at Tarakan Port. “We intercepted the Satria Bahari when it was about to enter Sipadan-Ligitan waters at 10 a.m. local time. We found the ship’s captain did not have valid documents for its trip to Tawau,” Riadi said, adding that the ship was carrying a large number of sonokeling logs. Based on information provided by the ship’s captain, the police obtained the name of the owner of the smuggled-wood – Wahab - who lived in Tawau. The police also found the Stripes of Glory, the Malaysian national flag, during their search of the vessel. - See more at: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2015/03/01/police-foil-wood-smuggling-attempt-malaysia.html#sthash.cOXXkRIU.dpuf