India: Thermal coal port stocks dip w-o-w

• Inventories fall at Paradip, Vizag, Mangalore
• Portside prices of South African coal decrease

Thermal coal inventories at Indian ports fell slightly by 2% week-on-week to 11.83 million tonnes (mnt) in Week 11 of CY’25, down from 12.08 mnt in the previous week, as per BigMint data.

Port-wise inventory breakdown
Among major ports, stocks at Paradip dropped by 17.5% to 1.26 mnt from 1.53 mnt, while Vizag witnessed a 14.6% fall to 0.66 mnt. Mangalore’s inventory declined by 13.1% to 0.50 mnt. Dhamra also saw an 11.5% decrease to 1.00 mnt.

Conversely, Haldia registered a significant 30.3% increase in coal stocks at 0.47 mnt, while Mundra’s inventory rose by 17.1% to 1.16 mnt. Stocks at Karaikal and Krishnapatnam surged by 104.2% and 67.5%, respectively, although volumes remained relatively low.

Kakinada’s stocks rose by 8.2% to 0.13 mnt. Pipavav saw the largest decline of 66.7%, with inventories falling to 0.01 mnt.

Company-wise inventory trends
Adani Enterprises portside inventories declined by 13.7% to 2.61 mnt from 3.02 mnt. In contrast, Agarwal Coal’s stocks rose by 3.6% to 1.01 mnt from 0.98 mnt.

Market overview

South African thermal coal prices at Gangavaram Port declined w-o-w, with RB2 (5500 NAR) dropping by INR 50/t to INR 8,400/t exw, while RB3 (4800 NAR) held steady at INR 7,100/t. Weak buying interest persisted amid a 41% m-o-m fall in South African exports to India at 1.58 mnt in Feb’25. Export offers for RB2 slipped $0.5/t to $77.5/t FOB.

Indian domestic coal prices remained stable, but sponge iron (C-DRI) dropped INR 150/t to INR 26,450/t exw-Rourkela. Market activity stayed low, though prices rose slightly at Mangalore due to tight supply. Regional supply concerns may support prices.