Indian Coal Imports Down 8% Y-o-Y in Aug’17

Indian coal imports have fallen for the fifth straight month on the yearly basis in FY18, data compiled by CoalMint Research shows.

Indian coal import decreased 8% Y-o-Y to 16.30 MnT in Aug’17, compared with 17.70 MnT in Aug’16. While the total coal imports in CY17 (till Aug’17) declined 12% to 137.86 MnT, in comparison with 156.16 MnT coal imported during Jan’16-Aug’17 period.

Of late, enhanced coal supply from CIL was the reason for the decline in coal imports. However, CIL had restrained its production in order to clear excess stockpiles during Apr-Jul’17.

When the demand for power picked up during Jul-Aug period, CIL was unable to cater demand of power plants and as a result coal stocks at many power plants had fallen to critical limit.

Even if CIL and SCCL have recorded growth in production during Aug’17, coal volumes available to Cement and Sponge iron manufacturers would remain limited, as CIL has decided to regulate coal movement to non power sector in order to supply additional coal to power plants.

In order to replenish their stock, Indian buying from seaborne coal market is set to increase as the monsoon season draws to a close.

Thus, tight domestic supply and restocking requirements could cause a growth in imports. Monthly coal import in Aug’17 which was marginally down from 16.48 MnT in Jul’17 is expected to increase.

Grade-wise Coal Imports:
Share of Non-coking coal accounted 60% in the total coal imports during the month. However, Imports of Non-coking coal das decreased 2% M-o-M to 9.97 MnT in Aug’17, compared with 10.14 MnT in Jul’17.

Imports of Coking coal, which is the second-largest coal grade imported from the country, has also fallen 5% M-o-M to 4.52 MnT in Aug’17.

Of the other major grades imported by the country, imports of Anthracite and Pet Coke have increased, while Met coke imports have decreased during the month.

Source: CoalMint Research
Quantity in MnT

Major Coal Exporters:
Indonesia remained the top coal exporter during the month, followed by Australia, South Africa, USA and Mozambique. The top 5 major exporters have remained unchanged from Jul’17.

Indonesian coal export has fallen 2% M-o-M to 6.03 MnT in Aug’17, export in Aug’17 was also 24% lower than the year ago value of 7.96 MnT in Aug’16.

Australia, the second-largest coal exporter, also recorded decline in their monthly exports both in on the monthly and yearly basis. Australia has exported 3.71 MnT coal to India in Aug’17.

South African Coal export fell 18% M-o-M to 2.39 MnT in Aug’17. While on the yearly basis, exports marginally increased from 2.37 MnT in Aug’16.

Source: CoalMint Reasearch

Major Coal Handling Ports:
The ports located in East coast region had received 8.93 MnT coal, while the West coast ports received the remaining quantity of 7.37 MnT in Aug’17.

Among the individual ports, Adani’s Mundra port handled major coal shipments during the month, followed by Gangavaram, Paradip, Krishnapatnam, Vizag and Dhamra.

Source: CoalMint Research
Quantity in MnT

Major Coal Receivers:
Adani Power received highest coal shipment of 1.39 MnT in Aug’17 all of which had contained Non-coking coal. JSW Steel, SAIL, Adani Enterprise, Coastal Gujarat Power and Swiss Singapore were among the other major receiver.

SAIL attained highest shipment of Coking coal, Tata Steel was the top Met coke importer, and KIOCL was the top Anthracite coal importer in Aug’17.The highest importer of pet coke during the month was UltraTech Cement.