India Coking Coal Imports Up 8% M-o-M in Mar’19; Imports from USA Rise by 85%

Indian metallurgical coal imports have increased by 7.75% on a month-to-month basis in the month of March to 4.85 million tonnes (MnT), as compared to 4.50 MnT in February, as per the latest vessel lineup data compiled by CoalMint Research.

Moreover, on a year-on-year basis, the country’s coking coal import volumes remained almost flat — totaling at 53.21 MnT in FY 2019 against 53.10 MnT recorded in FY 2018.

Source: Vessel Line-up Data, CoalMint Research | Quantity in MnT

Country Wise India Coking Coal Import in Mar’19:

A country-wise break-up of the monthly import data reveals that the major proportion of the Indian coking coal import shipments continued to be originated from Australia, constituting the highest share of around 66%.

However, Indian met coal imports from Australia fell by 2.5% to 3.22 MnT in Mar’19, against 3.30 MnT in Feb’19.

Following Australia, the imports from USA and Canada accounted for 10% and 6% shares respectively.

Notably, Indian coking coal imports from USA surged by over 85% to 0.51 MnT in Mar’19, against 0.27 MnT in Feb’19.

Further, India’s coking coal imports from Canada fell by over 23% M-o-M to 0.31 MnT in Mar’19 compared with 0.40 MnT in Feb’19.

Contrarily, imports from Russia jumped by nearly 63% M-o-M to around 0.28 MnT in Mar’19 compared with 0.17 MnT in Feb’19.

Source: CoalMint Research | Quantity in MnT

The following table presents a detailed breakup of the countries of origin during the month under review.

Source: CoalMint Research | Quantity in MT