In an interesting turn of events in the coal market in India, there was a sudden spurt in the import tendency, opposing the very mandate of the Government of India of reducing the imports in the country. The recent ban on usage of Petcoke in India has unleashed a coal importing spree among the users of Petcoke. The Supreme Court has banned usage of Petcoke in Delhi/NCR, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Subsequent to the ban, propensity for importing USA-origin coal has strengthened among the Petcoke users in India as the USA coal resembles closely with Petcoke in terms of the constituent calorific value. Non Coking Coal produced in USA is characterized by the calorific value of around 7,200 GAR, while, that for Petcoke lies at around 7,600 GAR.
Coal importers received huge orders for booking USA-coal after the announcement of the ban, interactions with several coal importers revealed.
According to the coal import database maintained by CoalMint Research, Non Coking Coal imports in India from USA were at around 0.48 MnT during 1-20Nov’17. However, the imports booked during the month have not yet reached the Indian ports.
Source: CoalMint Research
The current offers for USA origin Non Coking Coal are at around USD 100/MT CFR India.
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