SEMIRARA Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) is poised to make its second trial shipment of coal to Japan this month, as part of its goal to expand its market while also reducing its dependency on China.
“China is still our main foreign buyer, but with their industrial output growing slower than expected, we want to develop other Asian markets like Japan,” SMPC President and Chief Operating Officer Maria Cristina C. Gotianun told the stock exchange on Thursday.
SMPC said it is set to export about 50,000 metric tons (MT) of coal to Japan for Shikoku Electric Power Corp.’s 700-megawatt (MW) coal-fired ultra-supercritical power station.
Its first trial shipment to Japan was made in January when it sold 78,410 MT of mid-grade coal to J-Power, a utility company that is also an operator of coal, hydroelectric, wind, and geothermal power stations.
Ms. Gotianun said the integrated energy company is targeting to export around 30% of its full-year sales target of between 15 million MT and 16 million MT.
For the January-to-March period, SMPC said its coal shipments to China decreased to 1.1 million MT from 2.2 million MT, though it still accounted for 72% of its exports.
The energy company said it considered South Korea as a steady market at 300,000 MT accounting for about one-fifth of its export sales. The rest of its exports are for Japan at 5% and Brunei at 3%. — Ashley Erika O. Jose