India, a significant player in global dry fuel imports, has imported about 21.8 MnT coal in the month of Dec’14 with a marginal decline of 2.3% compared to last month.
India’s monthly coal imports have reached to its peak level in the last two successive months and registered the highest import in Nov’14. Following the preceding month’s import, December coal imports remained at the same level of about 21.8 MnT. As per SteelMint’s data analysis, coal import of all grades stood at 21.8 MnT, out of which, 17.3 MnT is Non-coking, 4.2 is Coking and about 0.3 MnT is Coke & Anthracite.
|
Coal Grades |
Quantity |
| Non-coking Coal |
17.29 |
| Coking Coal |
4.23 |
| Met Coke |
0.20 |
| Anthracite |
0.07 |
| Total |
21.78 |
Top Exporting Countries
Indonesia, Australia & South Africa were the major suppliers of coal at the end of month. Indonesia remains to be the top exporter of Non-coking and supplied about 12.9 MnT; up by 3% against Nov’14. Australia and South Africa had supplied about 4.2 MnT and 3.2 MnT coal respectively. In December, India has imported about 0.16 MnT of Met Coke from China.
Major Discharging Ports
About 70% of coal has been imported at key ports of the country. Among the major Indian ports, Mundra has imported maximum quantity of about 3.2 MnT, followed by Krishnapatnam & Gangavaram Ports with imported quantity of 1.8 MnT & 1.7 MnT respectively.
|
Ports |
Dec’14 |
Nov’14 |
Change |
| Mundra | 3.23 | 3.35 |
-4% |
| Krishnapatnam | 1.81 | 1.44 |
26% |
| Gangavaram | 1.74 | 1.75 |
-1% |
| Vizag | 1.70 | 1.74 |
-2% |
| Paradip | 1.57 | 1.51 |
4% |
| Dahej | 1.18 | 1.15 |
3% |
| Ennore | 1.08 | 1.04 |
4% |
| Dhamra | 1.07 | 1.56 |
-31% |
| Navlakhi | 1.01 | 0.63 |
61% |
| Haldia | 1.00 | 0.81 |
24% |
| Kandla | 0.91 | 1.19 |
-23% |
| Kakinada | 0.90 | 0.50 |
81% |
| Others | 4.56 | 5.68 |
-20% |
| Grand Total | 21.78 | 22.34 |
-2% |
A sharp rise in Coal Import on backdrop of few major Issues
- Thermal coal imports have risen sharply as oversupply and falling global prices have encouraged domestic power producers to continue import and stocking up. On the other hand, sluggish demand from China has put pressure on international prices.
- India’s current highlighted issues such as coal blocks de-allocation, sharp rise in domestic prices, reduced coal quantity in e-auction and coal production target missed by CIL are the major reasons behind rise in imports.
- India is likely to increase coal import from Indonesia and other ASEAN countries as import duty, which was 2%, has removed by the government wef 1 Jan, 2015 under Preferential Trade Agreement (PTA) signed with ASEAN countries.
Albeit, coal import was expected to increase in Dec’14 owing to cheaper coal availability in the international market, it has fallen marginally due to dull demand. The prime reason behind sluggish demand was depreciating Indian currency.
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