Minister of Trade Agus Suparmanto said that the trend of Indonesian coal exports to world markets continues to increase. Moreover, Indonesian coal is considered high quality. As a keynote speaker at the Coaltrans Asia 2020 Virtual Conference organized by the Indonesian Coal Mining Association (APBI), Agus said coal was a strategic product for Indonesia.
Based on data from the International Energy Agency Coal Information (2020), in 2019 Indonesia was recorded as the 4th largest coal producer with a total production of 616 million tons. "The trend of Indonesian coal exports in the global market has experienced a positive increase of 11.77 percent in the last five years (2015-2019)," said Agus through an official statement in Jakarta, Tuesday (24/11).
However, from January to September 2020, the export value was US $ 12.30 billion. That figure is down 25.45 percent compared to the same period last year which was recorded at 12.30 billion US dollars. The destination countries for Indonesia's coal exports in the January to September 2020 period were China (27.47 percent), India (19.89 percent), Japan (10.75 percent), Malaysia (7.98 percent), and the Philippines (7, 64 percent). The Trade Minister also explained a number of strategic steps taken by the Ministry of Trade in encouraging coal exports. He also emphasized a number of advantages of coal products produced by Indonesia. The strength of Indonesian coal is that it is environmentally friendly, the average calories produced and its sulfur content lower. "So, coal from Indonesia is of high quality and safe to use as fuel for power plants," said Agus.
The Ministry of Trade also gave appreciation to APBI for organizing this virtual conference. Agus hopes that this meeting can formulate a number of strategies that can encourage world coal trade and at the same time improve the Indonesian economy.
Source: https://republika.co.id/berita/qkaqa3457/tren-ekspor-batu-bara-indonesia-meningkat