JAKARTA. The Indonesian government raised coal reference price (HBA) by 3.2% to US$ 51 per ton for September 2020.
Agung Pribadi, the Head of the Communications Bureau of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, said that the decision to raise HBAs for September was influenced by positive signals from industries in China and Japan. "The demand for coal from China is increasing because China's domestic coal price is higher than the price of imported coal," said Pribadi in a press release today.
In addition, Pribadi added that the increase in HBA was also influenced by the average monthly index that constitute HBA.including the Indonesian Coal Index (ICI) which increased by 0.53%, the Newcastle Export Index (NEX) (grew by 6.01%), and the Globalcoal Newcastle Index (GCNC) (grew by 6.29%).
During the COVID-19 pandemic, HBA reached its highest point in March 2020, (US$ 67.08 per ton). Then, it fell gradually in April to US$65.77 per ton, May (US$61.11 per ton), June (US$52.34 per ton), July (US$ 52.16 per ton), and August (US$50.34 per ton). (KR/AR)