According to the vessel line-up data maintained with CoalMint research, Pakistan’s coal imports have registered a plunge of 4% m-o-m in the month of February and stood at 1.16 MnT against 1.20 MnT in the previous month of Jan’20.
In the first eight months (Jul’19 – Jan’20) of ongoing fiscal year of FY20, Pakistan’s coal imports have been recorded at 9.89 MnT against 10.1 MnT in the corresponding period of previous fiscal FY19.
The country has made highest imports from South Africa followed by Indonesia and then Russia. In the month of Feb’2020, there was increase in country’s imports from South Africa from 0.60 MnT in Jan’20 to 0.68 MnT in Feb’20 whereas imports from Indonesia dropped from 0.49 MnT in Jan’20 to 0.21 MnT in Feb’20.
In case of Russia, the imports surged from 0.12 MnT in Jan’20 to 0.22 MnT in Feb’20. There were no coal imports into Pakistan from Russia since the start of FY20 from Jul’20. However, the same can be seen being imported from the month of January this year. The key reasons attributed to this are falling transportation cost and unregulated port handling charges that is aiding Russian coal producers to compete in the global market. Along with this, the tepid coal demand in Europe and bulging stocks (amid coronavirus scare) which was a key destination for Russian coal exports is also one of the reasons of Russian coal being exported to Asian countries.
Power sector leads the way
The highest imports of thermal coal during first eight months of FY20 has been made by Power sector at 10.1 MnT followed by cement sector at 2.47 MnT and by traders at 0.82 MnT.
In Feb’20 there was a 6% decline m-o-m basis in thermal coal imports by power sector at 0.67 MnT whereas cement sector imported about 0.20 MnT during the month, down by 38% m-o-m basis.
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