In recent years, Indonesia has transformed from a coke importer into one of the world's largest exporters, driven by rapid growth in capacity and output. Despite facing import restrictions and anti-dumping investigations in India, its top export market, Indonesia's coke shipments continued to grow in 2025.

To protect local producers, India imposed a six-month restriction on imports of low-ash metallurgical coke starting January 1, 2025, with a quarterly cap of 33,182 tonnes on Indonesian supplies. The measure, initially due to expire in June, was extended until December 31.

The restrictions hit Indonesian producers hard, with some cutting output soon after the announcement and admitting they could not fully replace the massive Indian demand.

Nevertheless, exporters quickly shifted to new markets, including South America, Europe, mainland China, and Southeast Asia, helping sustain overall growth.

According to Statistics Indonesia, coke exports in January-July jumped 51.6% year on year to 3.72 million tonnes. However, the average export price fell 30.9% to $211.55/t. Exports to India plunged 28.7% to 906,400 tonnes, with India's share of Indonesian coke dropping from 52% to 24%. Still, India remained the top destination.

Reports suggested that some Indian steelmakers were granted quota reallocations this year.

In April, JSW Steel was allowed to import 106,000 tonnes of Indonesian coke, far exceeding the standard quota of 66,364 tonnes for the first half of 2025.

This was made possible by shifting unused quotas from other countries to Indonesia, while keeping India's total import ceiling within 1.44 million tonnes.

Meanwhile, Indonesia aggressively expanded into new markets. Exports to Brazil, mainland China, Australia, and France surged 183.7%, 230.3%, 205.8%, and 132.4% respectively, with Brazil seeing the largest volume increase at 337,400 tonnes.

Sales also extended to new destinations such as Belgium, Italy, Croatia, Spain, Germany, the Netherlands, and Argentina, doubling the number of export markets to 20 in the first seven months of 2025.

Some Indonesian producers said Europe and Southeast Asia have now overtaken India as leading destinations, with several European steelmakers closing coke ovens and opting for cheaper Indonesian supplies.

Overall, India's restrictions have yet to dent Indonesia's coke exports, which continued to grow.

With Indian steelmakers lobbying the government to raise the import quota to 9.3 million tonnes, 2.6 million tonnes of which would come from Indonesia, and rising steel capacity in Southeast Asia, Indonesian coke exports could see further upside.