Indonesia has ratcheted down the country's coal reference price known as coal benchmark reference price for June as the novel coronavirus has depressed demands for the commodity.
The Indonesian Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry set the coal reference price in June at 52.98 U.S. dollars for metric ton, or 8.13 dollars lower than the figure in the previous month, the ministry's spokesman Agung Pribadi said on Friday.
The global economy has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic that has weakened demands for the commodity, he said.
The coal stockpiles of the importing countries remain afloat, thus the importers prefer to use them first, according to the spokesman.
Indonesia's coal reference price came lower last year with an average of 77.92 dollars per metric ton, falling from 98.96 dollars per metric ton in the previous year, according to the ministry.
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 is the world's largest exporter and producer of thermal coal.
Editor:Cherie
