India: Thermal coal imports fall 14% in CY ’20 on weak demand, govt pitch for domestic coal

India a leading importer of thermal coal along with china, has recorded a fall of 14% y-o-y in its steam coal imports in CY ’20 at 158.9 mn t against 186.6 mn t in CY ’19, vessel line up data with CoalMint reveals.

While Indonesia continued to be the top exporter of thermal coal to India at 95.5 mn t (60% of the South Asian country’s total exports), Indian imports from Indonesia fell by 19% on year. Imports from South Africa too recorded a drop of 10% y-o-y at 37.6 mn t. Only Australian outshined the other importing countries as India’s imports from Australia rose by 27% y-o-y at 8.24 mn t in CY ’20.

All the major thermal coal importing sectors, including power and sponge iron, registered a y-o-y drop of 11% and 20% respectively. Only the cement sector’s imports moved up by 7% to 10mn t in CY ’20