High-grade coal producers enjoy premium price
Tuesday, May 31 2022 - 10:49 PM WIB
Based on the first quarter results of some publicly-listed Indonesian coal mining firms, miners that produced high-grade coal were able to get premium prices on exports to Japan, Hong Kong and Thailand, commodity research group PT Indeks Komoditas Indonesia (IKI) concluded in its latest Indonesia Coal Report (ICR).
The ICR said that coal mining companies that produced medium-grade and low rank coal were providing discounts to increase sales volume amid low demand from China.
“IKI hopes that the (coal) price will remain at high level in the remaining months (of 2022) due to tight supply and the prolonged war between Russia and China.”
IKI, however, added that the US Fed’s action in increasing interest rate to help tame inflation, which has been followed by almost all central banks, has weighed on commodity prices including coal, and compounded by the slower global economic growth and tight coal price policy in China.
Elsewhere, the ICR said that despite the significant increase in Indonesia’s coal export in March, overall coal export in the first quarter of 2022 plummeted by 16.9 percent y-o-y to only 88.48 Mt due to the government’s coal export ban policy in January 2022.
The report said that almost all coal producing provinces saw lower coal export during the first quarter period, except for South Sumatra and Lampung, which respectively recorded 15.4 percent and 46.9 percent export increase, year-on-year.
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