In the world of international trade, coal is a very important commodity to have. Not only
because the vast majority of nations still rely on fossil fuels to carry out their operations, but also
because just a few numbers of nations has more than sufficient coal resources to not only provide their
own nation with it, but also to export it to other nations. For a long time, Indonesia was considered to
be one of the leading coal exporters in the world. Having stated that, the author had an interest in
learning more about the competitiveness of Indonesia’s coal exports over the recent years, which saw
the occurrence of two key events, namely the COVID-19 and the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
The author uses an assessment of Indonesia’s coal export performance both before and during the
events that were mentioned, an analysis of the Porter’s Five Forces model, and trade indicators such
as market share and the Revealed Comparative Advantage (RCA) index to determine whether or not
Indonesia’s coal exports are competitive. This allowed the author to arrive at the desired result. On the
basis of the findings from the assessment and analysis of the framework and indicators, it can be
concluded that Indonesia possesses a high comparative advantage when it comes to exporting coal to
the global market.