Global Economic Pressure Triggers Lowering Coal-CPO Commodity Prices, Government Needs To Focus On Export Diversification

JAKARTA - Global economic uncertainty, including China's economic slowdown and a reciprocal tariff policy from the United States (US), has put pressure on several major Indonesian commodities such as coal and crude palm oil (CPO).

Head of Bank Mandiri Economist Andry Asmoro revealed that the price of coal in the global market decreased to 110 US dollars per ton, or a decrease of around 11.7 percent.

In addition, the price of CPO also weakened by 3 percent to 1,053 US dollars per metric ton.

According to Andry, this situation has a direct impact on Indonesia's export potential, especially in producing areas such as Sumatra and Kalimantan, which rely heavily on the performance of these commodities.

However, Andry emphasized that there are still export opportunities in other commodity sectors such as coffee, chocolate, and coconut which have promising export growth prospects going forward.

"We still see that there are export opportunities, commodities other than coal and CPO, where if we look at price trends and the demand is also quite high, for example in coffee, in chocolate, coconut," he said at the Mandiri Macro and Market Brief Quarter III 2025 Indonesia Economic Outlook, Thursday, August 28.

He added that the demand for the three commodities is expected to last in the long term.

Menurutnya, hal ini didorong oleh kebutuhan dari negara-negara dengan pertumbuhan ekonomi tinggi dan populasi besar, yang menjadi pasar utama bagi komoditas tersebut.

“Saya rasa ini adalah hal-hal yang kemudian akan bisa mendorong atau membantu neraca perdagangan kita terutama dari sisi ekspor, karena ini demand-nya cukup tinggi,” pungkasnya.

According to him, this is driven by the needs of countries with high economic growth and large populations, which are the main markets for these commodities.

"I think these are things that will then be able to encourage or help our trade balance, especially in terms of exports, because this demand is quite high," he concluded.