July Reference Coal Prices Still Correcting Due To The COVID-19 Pandemic

JAKARTA - The Price of Reference Coal (HBA) in June was valued at 52.16 US dollars (US) per ton. Compared to June, this figure decreased slightly by US $ 0.82 per tonne, from US $ 52.98 per tonne.

The decline in HBA was caused by the same sentiment last month, namely the lack of global market absorption of demand for Indonesian coal supply.

The Head of the Communication Bureau, Public Information Services and Cooperation (KLIK) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Agung Pribadi, said the most significant factor was that coal stocks in India and China were quite high.

"The two countries are prioritizing domestic supply (coal, red)," said Agung in an official statement, Jakarta, Friday, July 3.

The reduction in coal supply from Indonesia, continued Agung, cannot be separated from the strong influence of the impact of COVID-19 which limits the economic movements of each country.

According to Agung, in the midst of a pandemic, there is a tendency to switch to domestic alternative energy sources. "It cannot be denied that since the pandemic has shifted energy consumption patterns to other alternative sources," he said.

Agung admitted, HBA has experienced a downward trend since the Word Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic in mid-March.

The HBA had strengthened 0.28 percent to US $ 67.08 per ton in March compared to February's US $ 66.89 per tonne.

Then, the HBA weakened to USD 65.77 per tonne in April and USD 61.11 per tonne. The position of this HBA is the lowest price since 2016 where at that time the HBA in February 2016 had touched the figure of 50.92 US dollars per ton.

For information, the HBA itself is obtained from the average index of the Indonesia Coal Index (ICI), Newcastle Export Index (NEX), Globalcoal Newcastle Index (GCNC), and Platts 5900 in the previous month.

The equivalent quality of calories is 6322 kcal per kilogram of GAR. Later, this price will be used directly in the sale and purchase of coal commodities (spot) for one month at the point of delivery of free on board sales on a carrier vessel (FOB Veseel).