India's Coal Import Rises By 15 Per Cent In December

The country's coal import rose by 15.1 per cent to 23.63 million tonnes (MT) in December 2020 compared to 20.52 MT in the year-ago month.

Non-coking coal imports were at 15.63 MT in December this fiscal against 14.21 MT in the same month last fiscal. Coking coal imports were at 5.36 MT against 4.47 MT in December 2019-20, according to provisional data compiled by mjunction services.

However, the country's coal import dropped by 13.5 per cent to 160.79 MT in the April-December period of the ongoing fiscal compared to 185.88 MT in the same period last fiscal.

''India’s coal and coke imports during April-December 2020 through major and non-major ports are estimated to have decreased by 13.5 per cent over the same period last year, " mjunction services said.

During the April-December period of FY2020-21, non-coking coal import was at 107.07 MT against 128.26 MT during the year-ago period. Coking coal imports were recorded at 33.54 MT during the period against 37.20 MT during the same period a year ago.

Commenting on the coal import trend, Vinaya Varma, the MD and CEO of mjunction services, said, "Coal demand from utilities moved up due to higher generation in December. This coupled with a gradual recovery in industrial activities and expectations of further firming up of international prices led to increased volumes."

mjunction, a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL, is a B2B e-commerce company and also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals.