Thermal coal imports rose by nine per cent during the first
quarter of the current financial year at Paradip port, which handles about a
third of India's coal traffic, due to lower international rates amid domestic
supply problems, said traders and industry officials.
In global markets, most-traded Australian coal with 14 per
cent ash content has come down to $88 per tonne recently, down by 20 per cent
from March prices as demand from two biggest consume China and the USA dipped
sharply during the period.
In the same time, imports at Paradip went up to 1.67 million
tonne against 1.53 million tonne in the year ago period.
Even though Odisha is the second largest coal producer in
the country after Jharkhand with 25 per cent of total deposits, the high ash
content in its coal makes it less viable to produce power. Local industrial
houses, therefore, depend on low-ash contained coal produced in Indonesia,
South Africa and Australia to blend with the domestic coal for power
generation.
However, industries with captive power generation capacities
and independent power producers said higher import during a weaker rupee regime
indicate a problem in supply, and not demand.
In the past six to nine months, industries in the state have
resorted to coal import due to supply problems from Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd
(MCL), one of the biggest subsidiaries of Coal India Ltd (CIL) and have
suffered production loss due to this.
Source: Business Standard
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