India’s Imported Coal Volumes Witness Modest Growth Across Key Sectors

In India, coal imports grew by 10% during the first quarter of the current fiscal year FY 2020 (Apr’19-Jun’19) on the back of sustained demand from steel sector for coking coal and steady demand from the power and cement industry.

A comparison of the latest sector-wise coal import data between the past two quarters, compiled by CoalMint Research, has revealed certain noteworthy observations which are enumerated as follows:

• Indian traders were more active in importing coal during the previous quarter — volumes went up by almost 12% Q-o-Q to 26.88 million tonnes (MnT) in Apr-Jun’19, as against 24.03 MnT in Jan-Mar’19.

• Coal imports for steel production and electricity generation went up by 6% and 13% respectively during the last quarter ended 30th June, 2019.

• Cement manufacturing industry exhibited a drop of about 7.4% Q-o-Q in coal imports to 2.67 MnT in Apr-Jun’19, as against 2.88 MnT in Jan-Mar’19.

• Met coke producers displayed an 87% Q-o-Q increase in coal imports to 0.45 MnT in Apr-Jun’19, as against 0.24 MnT in Jan-Mar’19.

Coking Coal

India’s total coking coal imports remained almost unchanged at 5.34 MnT in FY19, higher by only 0.52% than 5.31 MnT in FY18.

Notably, the country’s steel producers curtailed their purchases of imported coal by 2.25% Y-o-Y to 4.75 MnT in FY19 as compared with 4.86 MnT in FY18.

The following table presents a detailed breakup of the sector-wise coking coal imports in India:

Met Coke

Met Coke imports in India increased by 8.3% Y-o-Y to 4.87 MnT in FY19 as compared with 4.50 MnT in FY18.

It is believed that Indian coal imports may continue to rise as the country’s ever-increasing energy demand is likely to drive power, cement and steel industries to improve capacity utilizations.