India: Power Plant’s Coal Import Increases 36% M-o-M in Oct’18

Coal imports by Indian power plants have witnessed a remarkable growth of 36% on the month in Oct’18, to mark its highest total over the two year period (FY18 and FY19).

Data provided by Power ministry indicates that imports by the plants had increased to 6.606 MnT during Oct’18 against 4.8698 MnT in Sep’18, which were also 26% higher on the year from 5.245 MnT in Oct’17.

A plant wise break up of imports indicates that the imported coal received by plants designed to run on domestic coal had registered a growth of 9% on the year to 1.917 MnT in Oct’18. Coal receipt by plants designed on imported coal, had surged 51% M-o-M to 4.689 MnT during the month.

Apart from the private sector plants, central and state based power stations which utilise imported coal for blending purpose had seen remarkable rise in coal imports.

However, the actual boost in imports was seen from the private sector plants which depend on imported coal for their operations. Notably, imports from these plants had crossed the 4-MnT mark for the first time in the past 19-months.

Source: Power Ministry
Quantity in MnT

Rise in power demand maintained healthy coal consumption at the power plants, which in turn had kept the coal stock levels tight. As per CEA, combined coal stock at power plants was recorded 14.681 MnT at the end of Oct’18, slightly falling on the month from 14.904 MnT in Sep’18.

The increase in coal imports was also boosted by the decline in Indonesian coal prices, which are majorly preferred among the power producers.

Blending of Domestic Coal Carried out to Substitute Imports:

Blending of coal is not a new thing in India where power stations usually mix imported coal with the domestic coal in order to achieve intended GCV at the plant end.

However, for the first time in the country two different grades of domestic coal were homogeneously blended by mechanised process at the Paradip Port Trust (PPT).

The process involved re-circulation of high grade coal from stack yard through reclaimers and low grade coal unloaded directly from wagons, which were then pass through a common junction house to form blended coal as per the desired ratio.

The PPT introduced ship loading of 20,112 MT of blended coal in the vessel M.V Diamond Star containing high grade coal of ECL (G4 grade) with low grade coal of MCL (G12 grade) at the ratio of 35:65 to achieve a higher Gross Calorific Value (GCV) suitable for Vallur Thermal power station of M/s NTECL on 6 Nov’18.

Mostly the power producers prefer Indonesian coal for carrying out their operations. In India, coal with high GCV is available in ECL, CCL and SECL as against abundance of low grade from MCL.

Hence the blending of domestic coal grades would provide a substitute to the import of coal from Indonesia, reduce cost and save precious foreign exchange for the country.