India’s Imported Coal Volumes Witness Sharp Growth Across Sectors

In India, coal imports grew by 14.4% in FY19 on the back of sustained demand from steel sector for coking coal and steady demand from the power and cement industry.

The latest sector-wise coal import data for the last three financial years, compiled by CoalMint Research, has revealed certain noteworthy observations which are enumerated as follows:

• Indian traders were more active in importing coal during the previous fiscal — volumes went up by 24% Y-o-Y to 85.21 million tonnes (MnT) in FY19, as against 68.57 MnT in FY18.

• Cement industry recorded a whopping 115% Y-o-Y growth in coal imports to 9.67 MnT in FY19, as against 4.49 MnT in FY18.

• Sugar mills saw a 50% Y-o-Y reduction in coal imports to 0.17 MnT in FY19, as against 0.37 MnT in FY18.

Coking coal

Nevertheless, India’s total coking coal imports remained almost unchanged at 5.34 MnT in FY19, higher by only 0.52% than 5.31 MnT in FY18.

Notably, the country’s steel producers curtailed their purchases of imported coal by 2.25% Y-o-Y to 4.75 MnT in FY19 as compared with 4.86 MnT in FY18.

Met coke

Met Coke imports in India increased by 8.3% Y-o-Y to 4.87 MnT in FY19 as compared with 4.50 MnT in FY18.

It is believed that Indian coal imports may continue to rise as the country’s ever-increasing energy demand is likely to drive power, cement and steel industries to improve capacity utilizations.