India: Portside thermal coal stocks climb up by 7% w-o-w

• Gangavaram’s inventory more than doubles
• South African coal tags hold firm at Indian ports

Thermal coal inventories at Indian ports rose 7.4% to 13.29 million tonnes (mnt) in week 17 of CY’25 from 12.37 mnt in the previous week, indicating increased vessel discharge activity at select locations.

Key port inventory trends

Gangavaram’s portside stocks more than doubled to 0.26 mnt from 0.12 mnt, a 116.2% surge. Kandla and Kakinada also saw sharp rises of 64.8% and 47.1%, respectively. Mangalore’s inventory climbed up by 14.1% w-o-w to 0.83 mnt, while Vizag rose 18.9% to 0.78 mnt. Paradip’s stocks increased 10.7% to 1.67 mnt, and volumes at Haldia edged up by 7.1% to 0.43 mnt.

On the other hand, Dhamra saw a 12.2% drop to 0.79 mnt, while Tuna declined by 20.6% to 0.20 mnt.

Company-wise trends

Adani Enterprise’s inventories rose 4.4% to 2.74 mnt from 2.63 mnt last week, while Agarwal Coal saw a slight decline of 2.4% to 1.12 mnt.

Market overview

Portside trades of South African coal in India stayed muted w-o-w due to limited demand from sponge iron producers. RB2 (5500 NAR) was assessed at INR 8,450/t at Gangavaram and Paradip, while RB3 (4800 NAR) held steady at INR 7,200/t. Few deals were noted – Vizag saw RB2 sold at INR 8,150/t and Dhamra witnessed RB3 booked at INR 7,250/t. Sponge iron prices fell by INR 450/t w-o-w, reducing coal demand. With a decline in sponge prices and no pre-monsoon stocking yet for coal, portside activity was subdued, and coal tags are expected to stay flat in the short term.