Giant Coal miner Bumi Resources (BUMI) planned to convert most of its foreign exchange (forex) revenues to Rupiah. Today, the local currency lowered to Rp15,220 per US dollar, new record low for the rupiah this year.

This stepped followed another coal miner Adaro Energy (ADRO) which planned to convert as much as US$1.7 billion export funds to Rupiah to help strengthen the country’s currency.

This year BUMI expects to earn revenue of over US$5 billion and almost 80% revenue from export and domestic market obligation (DMO) will be converted to Rupiah. The rest is for capital expenditure and other purposes. BUMI said it is also on track in fulfilling its DMO obligation of 25%.

Minister of Finance Sri Mulyani Indrawati asked all Indonesian companies to conduct business transactions using rupiah. This step, she said, was very helpful for the country to be able to stabilize the position of the Rupiah against the dollar.