As per UNI report India’s thermal coal imports saw a sharp decline during the first half of this calendar year, January-June, 2020, lower than assessed, showing the imports may drop this year by as much as 25% on year due to Covid-19 pandemic.
As per IHS Market Indian Coal Report, imports have given indications of improvement in the month of July subsequent to falling by around 50% on year in May and June, a sluggish economic condition due to COVID-19 induced widespread lockdowns may continue to impact demand for end-use products like steel, cement and electricity.
India’s thermal coal imports dropped 27% year-on-year in January-June, as lockdowns limited industrial activity, which in turn capped electricity demand. Study of IHS Markit ‘s preliminary shipping, ports and customs data reveals that thermal imports were estimated at 73.29 million tonnes in January-June, down from 100.55 million tonnes, with Q2 imports coming in at 26.25 million tonnes, compared to 53.25 million tonnes in the corresponding period before.
Given the trend line from the provisional data until June, it was currently assessed that up to 25 percent slippage in India’s thermal imports as demand is likely to continue to be sluggish and higher domestic coal availability due to steady output and pithead stocks reaching 74 million tonnes as of June 30.
