Indonesian HBA for October reaches 10 month high; Coal India surpassed target output for September: KATM Exclusive

9 October 2017

International

Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources set its October thermal coal reference price, also known HBA, at a 10-month high of $93.99 per tonne, up 2% on the month and 36.1% higher year on year. Indonesian coal prices are seemingly supported by increase in number of coal-fired power plants entering the test phases in Asia. Also, marginal slowdown development in renewable energy sources, have pushed back energy back into thermal coal.

World’s second largest coal producer, the US, produced approximately 15.3 million short tons of coal for the week ending September 30, EIA said in its latest report. According to the same report, this production estimate is 4.4% higher than previous week’s estimate and 2.7% higher than the production estimate in the comparable week in 2016. Year to date (as of September 30, 2017) coal production totalled an estimated 593.7 million short tons, 12.3% higher than the comparable year to date coal production in 2016.

India

World’s largest coal miner, Coal India Ltd. reported second straight monthly increase in the production following a surge in demand from power plants. September’s production jumped 10% year on year, as the state owned miner produced 38.77 million tonnes of dry fuel, a little above the target of 38.32 million tonnes set for the month. The miner produced 231.87 million tonnes of coal in April-September period this fiscal, missing the output target by 4.69% (11.43 million tonnes). The production target for the first six months of 2017-18 financial year was set at 243.3 million tonnes