Indonesia's Coal Export Ban Distresses China and South Korea

The Indonesian government's policy of banning coal exports on January 1-31 2022, which was announced suddenly, made importing countries such as South Korea and China panic. The South Korean government even formed a task force to mitigate the ban's potential impact. South Korea's Deputy Minister of Trade, Industry, and Energy Park Ki-young immediately held a meeting with officials from the South Korean Embassy in Indonesia and representatives of state-owned energy companies.

"Despite a limited short-term impact, swift and thorough countermeasures are necessary as energy demand is high in winter," Park Ki-young said, as quoted by The Korea Herald on Tuesday. Meanwhile, China, Indonesia's largest coal importer, believed that the export ban would affect its coal supplies. "Even if the Indonesian coal takes effect in January, its impact on the overall inventory of domestic power plants is still generally under control," Fengkuang Coal Logistics spokesperson revealed as quoted by Bloomberg on Tuesday.