Authorities in Indonesia has banned coal exportation for the month of January over concerns about local power blackouts amid tight supplies.
Many ships bound for Indonesia ports have been left in limbo by the swift export ban.
Indonesia is the world’s biggest exporter of thermal coal, exporting around 400m tonnes in 2020.
The Indonesian Coal Mining Association (ICMA) called on the government to revoke the ban, saying in a statement it was “taken hastily without being discussed with business players”.
Following this development, China’s short-term energy supply is under threat from Indonesia’s decision to ban thermal coal exports in January, but any long-term impact is “generally manageable” due to the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, analysts said.
The Southeast Asian country – the world’s biggest exporter of coal for power generation – on Saturday announced a halt to exports this month to prioritise its own domestic supply and to avoid widespread blackouts.
Due to Beijing’s ongoing trade dispute with Australia, China is increasingly reliant on Indonesian thermal coal, and in the first 11 months last year it imported 177 million tonnes. This represented an increase of 54 per cent compared with the same period in 2020, and accounted for 74 per cent of China’s total imports, customs data showed.
