Indonesia's coal exports saw a slight month-on-month increase, though volumes remained relatively low and declined compared to the same month last year. Coal shipments to China continued a downward trend, according to the latest vessel-tracking data.

Indonesia's seaborne coal exports totaled 36.68 million tonnes in March, down 4.76% compared with March 2025, while up 0.41% from 36.53 million tonnes in February 2026, data from Kpler showed.

The data shows that most of Indonesia's coal exports went to Asia, totaling 35.39 million tonnes, a year-on-year decrease of 6.82% and roughly flat month-on-month. This accounted for 96.7% of Indonesia's total coal exports in March, up from 95.4% in the previous month.

Indonesia exported the largest volume to mainland China in March, at 11.94 million tonnes, down 22.09% YoY and 17.41% MoM.

In March, Indonesia exported 7.59 million tonnes of coal to India, a decrease of 4.23% year-on-year but an increase of 12.07% month-on-month. Exports to the Philippines reached 2.9 million tonnes, up 8.45% year-on-year and 37.05% month-on-month.

Meanwhile, coal exports to Vietnam totaled 2.7 million tonnes, down 3.13% year-on-year but up 26.04% month-on-month. Exports to Malaysia stood at 2.31 million tonnes, rising 10.31% year-on-year and 59.03% month-on-month.

In the first quarter of 2026, Indonesia's cumulative seaborne coal exports reached 111.22 million tonnes, down 5.1% year-on-year. Among these, exports to mainland China totaled 42.21 million tonnes, a decrease of 8.85% compared to the same period in 2025.