Indonesian coal miners have lodged a request to China regulators, appealing the latter to scrap its import policy which limit coal puchase from Indonesia, Kontan daily reported citing Hendra Sinadia, executive director of the Indonesian coal mining association (APBI) as saying on Thursday.
Sinadia made the call during a Coal Summit held in Qinghuangdao, China early this month. Sinadia did not disclose the response from China authorities in regard to Indonesian coal miners’s request.
China government has been reported to impose import restrictions to buy coal from Indonesia. Reports suggested that such import restrictions were intended to boost the use of coal in China. Unfortunately, such import restriction, according to Sinadia, had resulted in a decline in coal demand from Indonesia. This, in turn, put the price of Indonesian coal to continue on the downward trend.
“We beg the Chinese government,” Kontan reported quoting Sinadia.
Indonesia’s benchmark coal price has continued to fall in the past five months. It is a government’s reference price. The benchmark price fell to USD 107.83/MT in Aug’18, USD 104.81/MT in Sep’18, USD 100.89/MT in Oct’18 and fell below the USD 100 mark in Nov’18 to USD 97.90/MT. The government set the benchmark price at USD 92.51/MT in December this year.
Sinadia did not provide coal sales to China. China and India have been the biggest buyers of Indonesian coal. Indonesia’s coal exports are predominantly lower-grade coal, typically with an energy value of 4,200 kilo calories per kilogram (kcal/kg) or less.
In a period of subdued demand from China, FoB price of Indonesian 4200 GAR coal has specifically fallen by 37% since the beginning of CY18, was assessed at USD 30/MT, this week.
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