Indian Coal Imports Fall by 2% M-o-M in Jan’20

According to the customs data with CoalMint, India’s total coal imports for January month have plunged by 2.23% M-o-M basis from 22.4 MnT in Dec’19 to 21.9 MnT in Jan’20 whereas on Y-o-Y basis the same has increased by 16% and stood at 18.9 MnT in Jan’19. Out of the total imports in last month i.e. Jan’20, the non-coking coal had the highest share (73%) followed by coking coal (21%), pet coke (4%) met coke (1%), and anthracite (1%).

India’s non-coking imports stood at 15.6 MnT in Jan’20 against 16.1 MnT in the previous month whereas the met coke imports stood at 4.7 MnT in January against 5.4 MnT in Dec’19. Country pet coke imports in Jan has been recorded at 0.89 MnT, met coke at 0.23 MnT and anthracite at 0.16 MnT. The industry experts are of the opinion that demand downfall across sectors has had a downward cascading effect on everything including coal imports during January 2020.

Indian coal import increases in FY20

In the first ten months of FY20 (starting from Apr’19 – Jan’20), India’s total coal imports stands at 206.6 MnT against 200.1 MnT in the corresponding period of previous fiscal.

The country majorly imports non-coking coal and the same stood at 155.6 MnT in the above period of FY20 against 150.7 in FY19. In case of coking coal, the same stands at 47.4 MnT during Apr’19 – Jan’20 against 44.03 MnT in Apr’18 – Jan’19. India’s pet coke imports during first ten months of ongoing FY20 stands at 9.27 MnT followed by met coke 2.56 MnT, and anthracite at 1.34 MnT.

What led to the imports surge?

This year, CIL’s (country’s largest coal producer) coal production suffered for five months straight due to worst strikes and the heaviest monsoon in last 25 years resulting in imports growth during the ongoing fiscal. Indian coal-fired utilities, which account for over three-quarters of overall consumption, boosted imports of non-coking coal by nearly a third during the first 10 months of FY20. The highest imports of non-coking coal were recorded from Indonesia at 96.1 MnT (was 92.2 MnT in corresponding period last fiscal) followed by South Africa at 37.3 MnT (during Apr’19 – Jan’20), up by 19% y-o-y basis.

The highest imports of coking coal – used in steelmaking were recorded from U.S. at 6.70 MnT followed by U.S. at 5.72 MnT during first ten months of FY20.