India Becomes Top Coking Coal Importer in CY’21

India has emerged as the world’s largest importer of coking coal in CY’21, overtaking China. However, Indian coking coal imports increased by 7% y-o-y to 56.27 million tonnes (mn t) in CY’21 against 52.41 mn t in CY’20, on the back of higher crude steel production. On the other hand, its nearest competitor China saw a steep decline in imports by 29% y-o-y to 51.5 mn t in CY’21, as the country had placed severe steel output cuts in a desperate measure to curb air pollution.