Semirara Mining and Power Corp., a listed integrated energy company, said Thursday it scheduled this month to make its second trial shipment to Japan, a move intended to open new destinations for Semirara coal and reduce dependence on the Chinese market.
“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,” said Semirara president and chief operating officer Maria Cristina C. Gotianun.
She said around 30 percent of Semirara’s full-year sales target of 15 million to 16 million metric tons of coal is expected to come from exports.
In the first quarter, Semirara coal shipments to China, which account for 72 percent of coal exports, dropped by to 1.1 million metric tons. Semirara shipped 300,000 tons to South Korea, about 20 percent of exports. Japan and Brunei combined for the remaining 8 percent.
Semirara said the June shipment to Japan of 50,000 metric tons will be delivered to Shikoku Electric Power Corp. for its 700-megawatt coal fired ultra-supercritical power station.
The first delivery to Japan was a shipment of 78,410 metric tons of mid-grade coal in January to J-Power, a utility company that operates coal, hydroelectric, wind and geothermal power stations.
In the first quarter, standalone coal revenues sank by 40 percent from P25.7 billion to P15.5 billion mainly due to high base effect of record production, shipments and selling prices.
