Indonesia has increased HBA coal benchmark price in Jan’18 to USD 95.54/MT, from USD 94.04/MT in Dec’17, the directorate general of coal and mineral resources at the Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry, said on its website on 8 Jan’18.
The Jan’18 price rose about 1.6% from the previous month, but still less than USD 101.69 a ton reached in Dec’16.On the Y-o-Y basis, Jan’18 price index has increased 11% from the levels reached during Jan’17. The ministry didn’t give details for the increase. The benchmark hit the highest price of USD 127.05/MT in Feb’11, after being launched in Jan’09.
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.
Indonesian Coal Offers:
Buyers from India have been struggling to keep pace with the rising Indonesian coal prices, which was supported by strong Chinese demand and limited cargo availability.
Indian buyers were in need of coal, since many of them had not stocked enough coal as per the demand. The coal prices were likely to fall after Jan’18. However, the longer than expected stay of the winter season in China has continued to keep Chinese buyers active in the market.
Market participants have informed that many Indonesian coal miners had already ran out of coal shipments for Jan’18, thus the ongoing rally in Indonesian coal prices is anticipated to sustain in Feb’18.
Indonesian 5000 GAR coal was assessed at USD 68-69/MT, FoB Kalimantan. 4200 GAR coal was offered at USD 48-49/MT, Fob Kalimantan.
Leave a Reply