Indian Coal Imports Up 10% M-o-M in Sep’17

Coal imports in Sep’17 have increased on the year-on-year basis for the first time in FY18, data compiled by CoalMint Research shows.

According to the data, Indian coal imports rose 10% M-o-M to 18 MnT in Sep’17, compared with 16.30 MnT in Aug’17. Moreover, monthly imports had reached the highest value since May’17, which were also 11% higher on the year compare with 16.20 MnT in Sep’16.

Of late, Imports have been falling this year on the account of increased coal output from CIL. Total Imports during the first 9 months of CY17 (Jan’17-Sep’17) were still down by 10% Y-o-Y to 155.86 MnT compared with 172.36 MnT coal imported during the same period of CY16.

However, low coal production during the current fiscal FY18 has created shortage of the fuel across many power plants in the country. Plus, the domestic coal available with the power sector was wet in nature, and had lost adequate quality due to the higher moisture content during the rainy season.

Besides, the revival of coal demand after the monsoon period has also pushed buyers to look for imported coal for restocking. As a result of these coal imports have increased during the month, and are expected to grow further provided CIL should raise its production in line with the growing demand.

Grade-wise Coal Imports:
Imports of Non-coking coal increased 22% M-o-M to 12.20 MnT in Sep’17, compared with 9.97 MnT in Aug’17. Share of Non-coking coal in the total imports was more than 67% during the month.

Coking coal imports recorded a minor drop of 1% M-o-M to 4.49 MnT in Sep’17.

Of the other major coal grades imported by the country, import of Anthracite has increased 84% M-o-M to 0.14 MnT, while Met coke and Pet Coke imports have declined 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.

Indonesian coal export rose 30% M-o-M to 7.85 MnT in Sep’17, which was also 12% higher on the year compared with 6.98 MnT in Sep’16.

Australia, the second-largest coal exporter, recorded a minor growth in monthly export from 3.78 MnT in Aug’17 to 3.83 MnT in Sep’17. Exports were down 9% Y-o-Y compared with 4.21 MnT in Sep’16.

South African coal had witnessed 40% increase in exports both on the monthly and yearly basis, to 3.34 MnT in Sep’17. Exports from Africa were the highest since May’17, as many Indian buyers which were muted during the rainy season had returned to the market post monsoon.

Source: CoalMint Research | Quantity in MnT

Major Coal Handling Ports:
The ports located in East coast region had received 8.64 MnT coal, while the West coast ports received the remaining quantity of 9.36 MnT in Sep’17.

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

Source: CoalMint Research
Quantity in MnT

Major Coal Receivers:
Adani Enterprise received the major coal shipment of 1.93 MnT in Sep’17 all of which belonged to Non-coking coal.

JSW Steel, the third-largest importer in the month, had acquired largest quantity of Anthracite and Met coke shipments.

SAIL and UltraTech Cement were the major importers of Coking coal and Pet Coke respectively during the month.

Source: CoalMint Research
Quantity in MnT