he government set on Thursday the coal reference price at US$88.85 per ton in April, a 0.84 percent decrease from the $90.57 per ton set in the previous month.
The change marks a further decrease of the coal price, which stood at $107.83 per ton in August last year.
Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry spokesperson Agung Pribadi said a number of factors could be attributed to the decrease of the coal reference price, including the limitations on coal imports in India, China's lower demand for Australian coal, a hike in coal production in China for domestic purposes and Russia's low sales in coal across Europe.
The government set a target to produce 485 million tons in 2019, a similar target to that of 2018, when 25 percent of the coal produced was allocated for the domestic market through the domestic market obligation (DMO) scheme, mostly to supply electricity plants.
Under the DMO scheme, the coal domestic price was set at $70 per ton.
The change to the coal reference price also took into account decreases in the Indonesia Coal Index (2.09 percent), Newcastle Export Index (3.41 percent) and Globalcoal Newcastle Index (2.42 percent) and an increase in the Platss 5900 by 0.84 percent. (bbn)
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