Jakarta,-Jakarta Chairman of the Indonesian Energy and Coal Suppliers Association (Aspebindo), Anggawira sees the trend of demand for coal exports to India and Bangladesh is still high, even though the world is shifting towards energy transition. The reason is, both countries still need these physical energy commodities to supply to the PLTU.

Conversely, demand from China, which is currently the main export market for Indonesian coal, tends to decline. Sluggish economic growth has made coal demand from the Bamboo Curtain Country not as fast as before.

"If we look at the demand from India, Bangladesh is still trending quite high. Only if the contraction of economic growth in China itself is not like before, the demand is just sloping," said Anggawira at his office in Jakarta, quoted Wednesday (24/4/2024).

China Needs Stock

China, said Anggawira, is compiling inventories or inventories of coal stocks in the country. So that the government can better control consumption so that it is not too large.

"So they tug-of-war. If this price is (high) they keep it. They have conceded, they still want inventory in their country," he said.

Anggawira assessed, that most countries inevitably have to deal with the use of green energy that is being hyped. Although on the other hand, geopolitical conflicts in the Middle East currently do not have a significant impact on coal exports.

"Because coal is a substitute item. So when world oil prices and gas prices experience pressure or a significant increase, of course inevitably switch to coal. But maybe if I see the fluctuations are not as exciting as yesterday when the Covid situation," he explained.

Likewise, China, has indeed prepared its domestic coal stocks to deal with price fluctuations in the global market.

"China also has an inventory strategy that is quite prepared. So they have a control function regarding international coal prices, "concluded Anggawira.