Philippines' Semirara to expand coal capacity
MANILA, May 6 (Reuters) - Semirara Mining Corp (SCC.PS), the Philippines' largest coal producer, said on Tuesday it plans to expand annual capacity by 500,000 tonnes starting this year to meet rising overseas demand.
The company, a unit of Philippine conglomerate DMCI Holdings Inc (DMC.PS), said it expects coal exports to India, China and Hong Kong to double to 1.6 million tonnes this year.
Semirara started exporting coal last year to reduce its dependence on local consumers, such as the country's largest power generation firm National Power Corp (Napocor).
Isidro Consunji, president of parent firm DMCI, said Semirara would spend 1.5 billion pesos ($35 million) this year to acquire new equipments such as excavators and dump trucks to help expand capacity to 4.5 to 5 million tonnes per year.
Total Semirara coal sales for 2007 rose 72 percent to 3.575 million tonnes. Of this, 800,000 tonnes was exported to China, India and Hong Kong and the rest sold domestically.
Coal prices reached record highs in the early part of this year after a series of supply disruptions in key coal producing countries, such as China and Australia. ($1 = 42.28 Philippine peso) (Reporting by Karen Lema; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
