JAKARTA, INDONESIA — The COVID-19 has severely hurt almost all business sectors — the mining sector is no exception.
Irwandy Arif, a special staff for the minister at Indonesia’s Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, earlier in June said that if the pandemic continues until the end of the year, state revenue from the mining sector is projected to decrease by 20 per cent.
CNBC Indonesia reported that the government has revised the target of non-tax revenue from the mineral and coal sector from over Rp 40 trillion to Rp 31.4 trillion due to the pandemic.
Irwandy added that some of the mining projects have been halted by the COVID-19. The realisation of the investment in this industry reached 37.3 per cent of the target as of October this year.
Indonesia’s state mining firms have started recovering in Q3 2020
However, Indonesia’s state tin miner PT Timah Tbk showed an improved financial performance in the third quarter of the year (Q3 2020) as the company’s operational cash flow rose from Rp 3.17 trillion in Q2 to Rp 4.84 trillion in the said quarter, Detik reported.
Another indicator is the company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization) in Q3, which stood at Rp 850.36 billion, up from Rp 338.72 billion in Q2.
Diversified miner PT Aneka Tambang Tbk (ANTM) booked a net profit of Rp 835.78 billion in the third quarter, up 30.28 per cent year-on-year.
Gold has been the company’s main contributor for the past nine years as 72 per cent of the company’s sale is from the precious metal, Kontan reported.
Coal price reached above US$65 per ton, CNBC reported on 22 November. On 18 November, coal price hit US$63 in the trading session that day — the highest since April.
As of October, Indonesia’s coal export reached 232.3 million tons of coal—58 per cent of the target—Coordinating Minister for the Economy Airlangga Hartarto said, as reported in The Jakarta Post.
Vaccine trials give some hopes to the coal sector
According to Kiwoom Sekuritas Indonesia analyst Sukarno Alatas, most of the commodities’ prices tend to be stronger than those in Q2. The price of gold only dropped in Q1.
He added that several commodities such as tin, coal, nickel, and gold will still continue to strengthen, thanks to economic recovery and the possible future availability of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Pharmaceutical companies are busy developing vaccines for the illness that has claimed around 1.3 million worldwide.
The successful stories of clinical trials from Modena, Pfizer, and BioNTech have helped to boost commodities’ prices for the past two weeks.