The Indonesian government has set its thermal coal benchmark price (HBA) for June 2020 at USD 52.98 per metric ton (MT), down 13.30% as compared to USD 61.11/MT in May.
The Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources said in a statement obtained on Friday that the lower June HBA was in line with declining trend in international prices of the commodity as global economic growth weakens due to the Covid-19 pandemic, undermining coal demand particularly in key markets of China and India.
“Coal stocks in India and China are also quite high. They continue to utilise their own domestic production”, said ministry’s Spokesman Agung Pribadi in the statement.
He said that amid the pandemic and weaker economic condition, countries around the world are focusing on utilising their domestic energy sources.
“In the midst of a pandemic, there is a tendency for the transition to alternative domestic energy sources. That also has become the main trigger in addition to the effect of increasing China-Australia relations”, Agung said.
Having increased by 0.28 percent to USD 67.08/MT in March, the HBA has continued to decline since then.
The HBA is formed by four coal indices, namely Indonesia Coal Index (ICI), Newcastle Export Index (NEX), Globalcoal Newcastle Index (GCNC), and Platts 5900.
Leave a Reply