Indonesia lowers its monthly coal benchmark price to USD 104.81/MT in Sep’18, a 2.8% cut from USD 107.83/mt in August, according to the Energy and Mineral Resources Minister’s decree posted on the ministry’s website and was signed by Energy Minister Ignasius Jonan on Sept. 4.
Agung Pribadi, the ministry’s spokesman, was quoted by Investor Daily as saying that the fall in September coal benchmark price was due to softening demand and import policy in China, Indonesia’s biggest coal buyer.
China’s easing demand has dragged on coal indexes, including Australian coal indexes, Pribadi said as quoted by Investor Daily.
But September price is still higher than July benchmark price of USD 104.65/MT.
The Indonesian coal benchmark price is calculated on calorific value of 6,322 kcal/kg basis. The formula is an average of the Indonesia Coal Index (ICI-1), Platts-5900, Newcastle Export Index (NEX) and globalCoal Index. The benchmark is used for both spot and term contracts.
The benchmark hit a record of USD 127.05/MT in February 2011, which was its highest since it was launched in January 2009.
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