The government of Indonesia has set its thermal coal benchmark price (known as HBA) for Nov’20 at $55.71/t against $51/t HBA price in Oct’20, in line with rising price trend in the global market.
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) spokesman Agung Pribadi said in a statement that recovery of imported coal demand from China, Japan and South Korea have contributed to the rise in the November’s reference price.
The HBA price started its downward trend this year in April when it fell to $65.8/t due to weakening global demand amid pandemic-induced economic downturn. The coal reference price saw its first rise this year in October at $51/t.
The HBA is formed by four coal indices, namely Indonesia Coal Index (ICI), Newcastle Export Index (NEX), Globalcoal Newcastle Index (GCNC), and Platt’s 5900.
Executive Director of the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (ICMA) Mr. Hendra Sinadia said that coal industry participants has welcomed the HBA increase.
“To be more precise, prices started to rebound since October amid increased demand from China starting winter season and release of new quotas by a Chinese province”, he added.
However, Mr. Hendra emphasized that the HBA increase cannot be said to have fully recovered to the levels of 2019 (HBA in Nov’19 was $66.5/t).
Moreover, the global economic conditions are still shrouded in air of uncertainty as Covid-19 pandemic crisis has not been resolved completely. Industry participants also believe that the demand for coal imports from China would continue to rise in the upcoming months.
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