Indonesian coal miners pump up production, eye European winter

JAKARTA — Indonesian coal miners are racing to boost production amid record prices and rising demand from Europe ahead of winter following a ban on the fuel from Russia.

Miners in Indonesia — the world’s largest exporter of thermal coal — do not typically ship to Europe, with China, India and some other Asian nations remaining their top export destinations. But the European Union prohibition on coal from Russia, which took effect in August, and that country’s shutdown of some gas supplies to the continent amid the war in Ukraine have left European buyers scrambling for coal from as far away as Indonesia and Australia.