Indonesia's Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) issued its thermal coal reference price, also known as Harga Batubara Acuan or HBA, at $161.63/t for October, a new record high since the benchmark price index was created.
The October's HBA price came 7.73% higher than a month ago, increasing for the 7th month in a row, and jumped by 216.92%, or $110.63/t, from October 2020.
"The increase in October's coal benchmark price is caused by surging demand from China as its coal consumption for power generation has exceeded its domestic coal supply capacity," the ESDM spokesman Agung Pribadi said.
Rising fuel demand from South Korea and Europe due to high natural gas prices also boosted the benchmark price, he said.
The HBA is a monthly average price based 25% each on Platts Kalimantan 5,900 kcal/kg GAR assessments, Argus-Indonesia Coal Index 1 (6,500 kcal/kg GAR), Newcastle Export Index (6,322 kcal/kg GAR) and globalCOAL Newcastle (6,000 kcal/kg NAR).
The HBA price for thermal coal is the basis for determining the prices of 77 Indonesian coal products and calculating the amount of royalty producers have to pay for each tonne of coal sold. It is based on 6,322 kcal/kg GAR coal with 8% total moisture content, 15% ash as received and 0.8% sulfur as received.
(Writing by Alex Guo Editing by Harry Huo)
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