Indian Coal Imports Down by 5.6% in FY16

Consecutively since 2-years, India crossed Coal imports mark of 200 MnT. However, the mark had been attained with a downfall of 5.6% in FY16. Also, recorded highest Pet coke imports in FY16.

India, the third largest coal producer in the globe, had imported around 219 MnT coal in FY16. However, imports had seen first fall ever in last one decade, noteworthy decline of 11 MnT against last fiscal.

Since last few years, consumption of coal had been rising significantly in the country. Post introduction of new power projects and additional capacity by the power companies, total coal demand in India were noted at 910 MnT in FY16.

Perhaps to cater the elevated demand of the last fiscal, India was in need to import more coal in FY16. In contrast, coal imports had fallen by 5.6% during the same period because of rise in domestic supply by CIL. Whilst, domestic coal supply had ramped up by 8-9%, which had been catering to large consumers fruitfully.

However, production by CIL rose from 494 MnT to 536 MnT in FY16. CIL had produced addition of 42 MnT; the highest ever addition to its coal production.

Source: SteelMint
Quantity in MnT

As per SteelMint’s data analysis, the country imported total about 229 MnT (Pet coke included) coal in FY16. Apart from Pet coke imports, 219 MnT coal was imported in the fiscal against 232 MnT in FY15. The country imported about 167.7 MnT non-coking coal (down by 8.7%), 47.8 MnT coking coal (up by 5%), about 3.7 MnT coke & anthracite in FY16. Also, a large quantity of Pet coke about 10 MnT (up by 70%) had been imported during last fiscal.

Source: SteelMint
Quantity in MnT

Earlier, the coal ministry had also projected a fall in yearly coal imports in FY16. In addition, few market experts forecasted that, the coal imports for FY16 would be between 220-250 MnT. Besides, at the mid of 2015, Indian coal import had peaked up, but due to government plans, it has now set to rapidly decline.

Major exporting countries to India in FY16

India purchases most of its coal from major supplying countries such as Indonesia, South Africa, Australia, Mozambique, USA,  China and Saudi Arabia. These nations had supplied about 95% of total imports during the fiscal.

Source: SteelMint
Quantity in MnT

Indonesia remains to be the top exporter of non-coking and supplied about 117.7 MnT; registered a fall of 16% against FY15.

Major discharging ports and importers in FY16

India’s major ports handled about 70% coal of total monthly imports. Among the major Indian ports, Mundra imported maximum quantity of about 31.6 MnT in FY16, followed by Krishnapatnam (20.44 MnT) and Paradip (16.73 MnT).

Companies like Adani Enterprises, Adani Power, JSW Steel, SAIL, Tata Steel, Bhushan Steel, Coastal Gujarat Power, Agarwal Coal, Essar Steel and JSW Energy emerged as the top 10 importers in FY16.

Moreover, it is noted that price disparity and grade difference between domestic and International coal again led to cross 200 MnT imports in FY16. While the price gap is being a big limitation to make a control over rising imports of the country.