Jakarta, CNBC Indonesia – Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Arifin Tasrif set the reference coal price (HBA) in December 2020 to increase to US $ 59.65 per ton from US $ 55.71 per ton in November 2020.
The Head of the Communication Bureau, Public Information Services and Cooperation (KLIK) of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, Agung Pribadi, revealed that the cause of the increase in the price of Indonesian coal commodities cannot be separated from the increasing global market demand.
“Japan, South Korea and India are intensively importing coal from Indonesia to meet the needs of their domestic industry. This indicates the recovery of industry in these countries,” Agung said as quoted by the ministry’s official statement, Wednesday (02/12/2020 ).
Another factor that has contributed to the strengthening of the HBA is the signing of an agreement to increase the agreement for Indonesia’s coal export to China.
“The two causes have also strengthened positive sentiment towards rising coal prices,” said Agung.
In the last three months the movement of the HBA has continued to creep up after almost the entire year experiencing a tremendous sluggishness and contraction due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In October 2020, coal prices were recorded at US $ 51 per ton, up from the previous month, September which only touched the figure of US $ 49.42 per ton.
“Overall, the average HBA in 2020 is US $ 58.17 per tonne,” he said.
Since Covid-19 was declared a global pandemic, the HBA movement has indeed fluctuated. HBA had strengthened by 0.28% to US $ 67.08 per ton in March 2020, compared to February 2020 which was pegged at US $ 66.89 per ton and January at US $ 65.93 per ton.
However, the HBA continued to weaken to US $ 65.77 per ton in April and US $ 61.11 per ton in May. Furthermore, in June 2020, HBAs fell to US $ 52.98 per ton, July US $ 52.16 per ton, and August US $ 50.34 per ton. It fell in September to US $ 49.42 per ton, then the HBA strengthened again in October to US $ 51 per ton.
For information, the HBA itself is obtained from the average index of the Indonesia Coal Index (ICI), Newcastle Export Index (NEX), Globalcoal Newcastle Index (GCNC), and Platts 5900 in the previous month. The equivalent quality of calories is 6322 kcal per kilogram of GAR.
(wia)
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