Indonesia likely to see significant growth in bauxite exports in 2019

Indonesia’s shipments of bauxite are set to grow in 2019. China, the top importer of Indonesian bauxite, imported about 4.63 million tonnes of bauxite in the first four months of 2019. The upward trend is expected to continue this year.

Indonesian state miner PT Aneka Tambang (Antam) is planning to request for additional export quotas for nickel ore and bauxite for 2019. Aneka Chief Executive Arie Prabowo Ariotedjo said that PT Aneka Tambang also plans to request for an additional bauxite export quota of 2 million tonnes for 2019. Currently, the limit of bauxite export quota stands at 840,000 tonnes. Antam expects to ship 2.8 million tonnes of bauxite in 2019.

Antam produced 1.10 million tonnes of bauxite last year, up 70 per cent from a year earlier. Bauxite sales volume amounted to 920,031 tonnes, a 10 per cent increased from 2017.

In the first quarter of 2019, Antam’s production stood at 187,830 wet tonnes of bauxite, down 6 per cent from 200,300 wet tonnes in the first quarter of 2018. Sales of bauxite fell about 10 per cent to 55,000 wet tonnes from 61,380 wet tonnes in Q1 2018. The drop is attributed to a delay in getting extension of an export permit. 

According to recent estimates, Indonesia is estimated to export a total volume of 11.11 million tonnes of bauxite in 2019, compared with 7.54 million tonnes in the previous year. The country is likely to witness a growth of 47.43 per cent year-on-year in the export of bauxite. Indonesian shipment of bauxite was 1.29 million tonnes in 2017.