India’s tier-1 mills put up a weak sales performance in the third quarter (October-December, 2023) amid rising inventories and imports. Production naturally saw a nominal growth. The EBIDTA per tonne rose amid competitive coking coal prices in the previous quarter. Coking coal costs are likely to be the biggest bother for tier-1 mills in Q4 (January-March, 2024). “Based on recent trends and our blended management capability, we expect our coking coal cost to be higher by $10-20/t during Q4,” a mill official said in an investor’s call. An official from another mill said: “We expect coking coal…to go up, may be, by $20-25/t during Q4 compared to Q3.” Coking coal is showing an uptrend amid supply challenges from Australia.
