Coal miner KPC ups output as workers ease pressure<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Coal mining firm PT Kaltim Prima Coal said on
\nWednesday in East Kalimantan that it had raised its coal output
\nto 70 percent of production capacity after striking workers
\nreturned some of the heavy mining equipment they had taken over
\nsince early February.<\/p>\n
KPC's Jakarta representative Bambang Sutanto said that since
\nlast week, the mining company was able to raise daily output to
\n35,000 tons from 25,000 tons.<\/p>\n
\"We can't operate normally with workers still holding back our
\nshovels,\" Bambang told reporters at his office.<\/p>\n
He is still uncertain when the company would operate at its
\nnormal production capacity of 50,000 tons a day.<\/p>\n
Fifty workers of KPC's contractor PT Liebherr, which operates
\nthe giant mining excavators have been on strike since early
\nFebruary.<\/p>\n
In pushing for better wages, Bambang said, the striking
\nworkers took control of four of the excavators.<\/p>\n
\"Between February and late March, our production fell by 50
\npercent, dropping to 25,000 tons,\" he said.<\/p>\n
He said that last week, Liebherr managed to persuade the
\nworkers to return two of the shovels.<\/p>\n
Bambang added that with production still running, the company
\nhad no plans in the near future to declare force majeure to its
\nbuyers.<\/p>\n
KPC, located in Sangatta regency, has an annual production
\nrate of 15 million tons of coal.<\/p>\n
Last year, a three month strike by KPC's own workers cost the
\ncompany a production loss of 1.5 million tons, causing it to
\nannounce force majeure.<\/p>\n
KPC supplies coal under long-term contracts to companies
\nincluding the Taiwan Power Company, China Light, and Tenaga
\nNasional Berhad in Malaysia.<\/p>\n
Last month, Bambang said, KPC paid demurrage charges of US$1
\nmillion to ships that were unable to load coal upon arriving in
\nSangatta.<\/p>\n
\"We now have five ships at our harbor waiting to be loaded,\"
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
He estimated KPC will have to pay another $1.5 million to $2
\nmillion in demurrage charges, if the strike doesn't end by this
\nmonth.<\/p>\n
Bambang said that Liebherr's striking workers were members of
\nthe Indonesian Prosperity Trade Union (SBSI). This is the same
\nunion that last year organized the strike of KPC's workers.<\/p>\n
While KPC cannot discipline Liebherr's workers, the company
\nsought to fire its own workers involved in the strike, he said.<\/p>\n
According to him, 10 KPC workers, also members of SBSI, helped
\nLiebherr's striking workers remove the shovels from the mining
\nsite.<\/p>\n
Bambang said the 10 workers were suspended from work, and KPC
\nnow sought permission from the Ministry of Manpower to dismiss
\nthem.<\/p>\n
He added that KPC had the support of Sangatta's local
\ncommunity in coping with the strike.<\/p>\n
\"In fact, they (the community) are sick of SBSI, and want to
\ndrive it out of East Kalimantan,\" he said.<\/p>\n
A statement by KPC claimed that locals had initiated a
\npetition for the ousting of SBSI and for showing their support of
\nKPC.<\/p>\n
It said that SBSI was reported to have insisted on continuing
\nits struggle, and even expressed its readiness to seek new
\ninvestors if KPC's current shareholders resigned.<\/p>\n
KPC is jointly owned by Anglo-Australian mining company Rio
\nTinto, and British-American oil and gas company Beyond Petroleum
\n(BP), which was formerly known as British Petroleum.(bkm)<\/p>",
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