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Indonesian coal price retreats for second consecutive month
The Indonesian coal benchmark price was set at US$158.50 per ton for January, down 0.81 percent from a month earlier, as China started ramping up production.
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Stuck on coal: Smokestacks belch noxious fumes into the air from the Suralaya coal-fired power plant in Cilegon, Banten on Sept. 21, 2018. Coal remains the backbone of Indonesia’s power generation. (AFP/-)
T
he Indonesian coal benchmark price has continued its downward trend for the second consecutive month in January as production in China begins to catch up.
The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry reported on Thursday that it had set the benchmark price (HBA) for January at US$158.50 per ton, down 0.81 percent from the preceding month.
The benchmark price it determined based on the Indonesia Coal Index, the Newcastle coal index and other indices in the preceding month.
It is used to calculate prices of coal products as well as royalties mining firms have to pay to the government.
Despite the decrease in recent weeks, the latest benchmark price remains relatively high and is more than double what it was a year earlier.
“The Chinese government is trying to raise coal production to meet the needs at home, resulting in an increase in its domestic coal stocks,” Agung Pribadi, the head of the communication bureau at the Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, was quoted in a press release as saying on Thursday.
The coal benchmark price hit a decade-high at $215.01 per ton in November, in part because China stopped importing the commodity from Australia, which led to shortages that sent both local and global prices up.
