Semirara eyes more coal experts to Japan

MANILA, Philippines — Integrated energy company Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (SMPC) is making another coal shipment to Japan in a bid to reduce its dependency on the Chinese market.

Following the company’s initial trial shipment to Japan last January, SMPC is set to make its second trial shipment to Japan this June.

The company intends to export 50,000 metric tons (MT) of Semirara coal to Shikoku Electric Power Corp. for its 700-megawatt coal fired ultra-supercritical power station.

“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 COO Maria Cristina Gotianun said.

Coal shipments of the company to China dropped by 50 percent to 1.1 million MT in the first quarter from 2.2 million

MTez?Yy in the same period last year.

China accounted for the majority or 72 percent of its exports during the period.

South Korea was a steady market at 300,000 MT, representing a fifth of export sales, while five percent of the company’s exports went to Japan and three percent to Brunei.

SMPC’s first trial shipment to Japan early this year consisted of 78,410 MT of mid-grade coal sold to J-Power, a utility company that operates coal, hydroelectric, wind and geothermal power stations.

“For 2023, we are targeting to export around 30 percent of our full-year sales target of 15 to 16 million MT,” Gotianun said.

SMPC chairman and chief executive officer Isidro Consunji earlier said the company plans to sell more coal locally moving forward.

“Previously, 50 percent of our coal was exported. This year we intend to sell 70 percent to the local market and just 30 percent for the export,” he said.

Last year, SMPC produced 16 million metric tons, 12 percent higher than previous year and seven percent better than its 2022 target.

SMPC is an integrated energy company with significant coal reserves and increasing power generation capacity.

As the largest domestic coal producer, the company supplies affordable fuel to power plants, cement factories and other industrial facilities across the country.

In the first quarter, SMPC’s 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.

Standalone reported net income declined by 51 percent from P14.2 billion to P7 billion on slower decline in cash costs.