JAKARTA, Sept 9 (Reuters) -
* The Indonesian government on Monday lowered the coal benchmark price (HBA) for September to $65.79 per tonne, the lowest since October 2016, an energy ministry spokesman said.
* The previous month's benchmark price, which the government uses to calculate a miner's royalties, was $72.67 per tonne.
* The weaker September benchmark was due to pressure from increased coal supply in China and India, as well as falling demand from the European continent, ministry spokesman Agung Pribadi said.
* State utility PLN PLNEG.UL will purchase coal from miners at the HBA price level, instead of the $70 price cap the government imposed on thermal coal sold domestically to power stations, Pribadi said. [https://reut.rs/2oXIy2m ]
* PLN has estimated it would consume 97 million tonnes of coal in 2019 and 109 million tonnes in 2020, a company official said last month. The HBA is a monthly average of the Argus-Indonesia Coal Index (ICI-1), the Platts Kalimantan 5,900 assessment, the Newcastle Export Index and the globalCOAL Newcastle index from the previous month.