India’s Coal Import Shipment surges by 4.5% M-o-M in Feb’20

According to the vessel line-up data maintained with CoalMint research, India’s coal import shipment for the month of Feb’20 registered an increase of 4.5% M-o-M basis from 21.05 MnT in Jan’20 to 22 MnT in the next month whereas if we make y-o-y comparison the same stood at around 19.06 MnT in Feb’19.

The highest increase was observed in the imports of non-coking coal by 6% from 15.9 MnT in Jan’20 to 16.9 MnT in Feb’20 whereas coking coal import surged by 4% from 4.7 MnT in Jan’20 to 4.9 MnT in Feb’20. The country’s pet coke import stood at 0.69 MnT followed by met coke import stood at around 0.11 MnT and anthracite at around 0.08 MnT in February month.

India’s non-coking coal imports from two major destinations, Indonesia surged 10% m-o-m from 9.06 MnT in Jan’20 to 10.04 MnT in Feb’20 and from South Africa by 5% from 3.9 MnT in Jan’20 to 4.13 MnT in Feb’20 respectively.

In case of coking coal, India’s key destination for import is Australia in case of which imports dropped marginally from 3.41 MnT in Jan’20 to 3.37 MnT in Feb’20. This is followed by Russia in case of which imports increased by 118% m-o-m basis from 0.27 MnT in Jan’20 to 0.59 MnT in Feb’20. In case of U.S., country’s coking coal imports surged by 12% from 0.32 MnT in Jan to 0.36 MnT in Feb 2020.

In the first eleven months of FY20 (Apr’19 to Feb’20), India’s thermal coal imports surged by 5.6% y-o-y basis from 226.05 MnT in FY19 to 238.6 MnT in FY20.

India’s thermal coal imports by power plants have increased this fiscal year even as total coal consumption used for electricity generation dipped due to lower power demand stemming from economic slowdown. India’s biggest miner, Coal India’s supplies to its customers, including the power sector, fell 3.7% annually to 528.3 MT in April-February, FY20 resulting which imports increased during the ongoing fiscal.

India Coal Import Shipment FY19 vs FY20