The textile and textile products (TPT) industry is worried that the increase in coal prices will also raise the basic electricity tariff or TDL for manufacturing this year. Secretary General of the Indonesian Fiber and Filament Yarn Producers Association (APSyFI) Redma Gita Wirawasta said this would undermine the competitiveness of domestic textile export products. Redma reasoned recently that the industry had to buy coal according to the international market price. Meanwhile, coal prices are experiencing a significant increase due to the Russia-Ukraine crisis earlier this year.

 "The problem is electricity, if this electricity increases our competitiveness will be lost even though we have energy sources but instead are given a price according to the market," said Redma, Tuesday (15/2/2022).

Redma said the electricity tariff accounts for about 25 percent of the total TPT production costs. The increase in TDL will raise the cost of production which in turn has an impact on the price of goods at the consumer level.

"Our hope is that PLN for coal is supplied if its commitment is no longer to export commodities, meaning that PLN's coal is supplied not at market prices but economically," he said.

The ICE Newcastle Exchange noted that February's coal contract had strengthened 5.90 points to US$245 per metric ton on Sunday (13/2/2022). In previous trading, black gold was still valued at US$239.10 per metric ton.

Meanwhile, coal for the March contract also strengthened 5.25 points at the level of US$220 per ton. This figure increased from the previous trade of US$214.75 per tonne.

Then in the April contract, coal was at the level of US$195.10 per ton, an increase of 5.25 points from the previous price of US$190.85 per ton. The price increase this year occurred amid the increasing demand for coal for power plants in the global market.