Coal barging on the Lalan river in south Sumatra, Indonesia has been temporarily halted since 1 January.
A coal barge collided with the Karang Agung bridge in the Lalan sub-district of the Musi Banyuasin region in August 2024, leading to debris obstructions, although coal barging had continued to take place after the incident.
Vessels navigating the Lalan river have now been requested not to pass under the bridge — also known as the P.6 Lalan bridge — according to a local government announcement issued on 31 December. The closure came into force on 1 January. It is not clear when coal barges will be able to resume navigating the river.
The halt to barging on the Lalan river is the latest in a series of transport infrastructure issues to impact coal logistics in Sumatra. The province issued a regulation to ban coal trucks from public roads in August 2025, with the embargo taking effect on 1 January 2026. Coal mining companies were directed to use either private coal hauling roads or river barges to transport their coal from their mines to seaports.
The number of dedicated coal hauling roads in the region is inadequate to serve the transportation needs of the coal mining industry in the province, the Indonesian Coal Mining Association said last month. There are efforts to build coal roads but these are significant endeavours that will take time to complete, even if coal companies have the financial capacity to do so, it added.
A number of coal producers in the region have reduced production as a result of the disruptions to barging and the road hauling ban although it is difficult to determine exact volumes, said a Singapore-based trader. Supply out of the affected region is likely to be heavily impacted and very few January-loading cargoes are available, another trader said. But delays to producers' receiving approvals for their work plans and budgets (RKABs) and a lack of clarity surrounding Indonesia's plans to introduce a coal export tax are also deterring producers from offering cargoes, the trader added.
The ESDM said in 2025 that it was revising the validity period for RKABs back to one year from three years previously, which it said will help the government to better control the production and sales of minerals and coal. The RKAB is a document submitted by Indonesian mining companies outlining their production targets for the year. It is subject to approval by the ESDM, but some producers have faced delays in obtaining 2026 quotas.
Jakarta has also previously announced plans to introduce a 1-5pc tax on coal exports from 1 January 2026, although this has been delayed.
Indonesia is the world's largest thermal coal exporter and south Sumatra is one of the major coal producing regions in the country, accounting for almost 14pc of total output. Indonesia is considering setting a coal production target under 700mn t for 2026, down from its near 740mn t target for 2025, due to expectations of weaker demand from key markets China and India.
By Andrew Jones
