JAKARTA, Feb. 4 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia has slightly increased its coal reference price known as coal benchmark reference price (HBA) for February amid the lower supplies and rising demands.
The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry set the coal reference price for the month at 66.89 U.S. dollars per metric ton, up 1.45 percent from the price for January.
Spokesman for the ministry Agung Pribadi said on Tuesday that the lower supply of coal in China after the country celebrated the Spring Festival and bushfires in Australia dragged outputs of the commodity.
"However, demands for coal increase during winter in China, Japan and South Korea," he said, referring to the buyers of Indonesia's coal.
Director of Indonesia's Coal Miner Association (APBI) Hendra Sinadia said the coal supply from Indonesia, the world's largest producer and exporter of thermal coal, could not be maximized during the wet season, local media reported.
The coal price has weakened since September 2018 and for 2019, the Indonesia's coal reference price only averaged at 77.89 dollars per metric ton.
The Indonesian reference price for thermal coal is the basis for setting up the prices of the country's 77 coal products and measuring the royalty producers have to pay for each metric ton of coal sold.
Indonesia's coal reserve is forecast at 26.2 billion tons, according to the ministry.
