New Delhi, August 10: India’s import of coal fell 43.2 percent to 11.13 million tonnes (MT) in July this year due to high dry fuel stocks in pitheads, plants and ports.
In July 2019, the country had imported 19.61 MT of coal, based on tracking of vessel positions and data obtained from shipping firms, according to a preliminary report, through mjunction services limited. mjunction — a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL — is a B2B e-commerce company that also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals.
“Imports in July 2020 stood at 11.13 million tonnes (provisional)… Earlier, coal and coke imports in July 2019 stood at 19.61 MT,” it said.
Commenting on the current trend in coal imports, mjunction managing director and chief executive Vinaya Varma said, “Import demand continued to be weak amidst high stockpile of coal at pitheads, plants and ports. The market participants seem to have adopted a wait and watch approach and are currently looking for a direction. We do not expect to see any significant variation in volumes in the short-term.”
Total imports of coal were registered at 57.27 MT during April-July 2020, which is 35.76 per cent lower than 89.15 MT imported during April-July 2019, it said.
Non-coking coal imports stood at 38.84 MT during April-July 2020 compared with 60.97 MT imported last year in the same period.
“Coking coal imports were at 10.67 MT during April-July, down from 17.73 MT imported during the same period last year,” mjunction services said.
The government had previously mandated state-owned Coal India, which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal production, to substitute at least 100 MT of imports in 2020-21 with domestic coal.
CIL had said last month that the output of coal in some of the major mines is still affected by high stocks and less offtakes.
CIL’s pithead stock as of July 16 was 72.88 MT compared to 33.17 MT a year earlier in the same period, it had said.
The Maharatna firm had reported that in the last week of March the coal dispatch was adversely affected resulting in the mounting of coal stock at pithead. Coal stock as of March 31 was 74.629 MT compared to March 31, 2019, 54.155 MT.
Earlier, the Center had asked power generating companies, including NTPC, Tata Power, and Reliance Power, to reduce dry fuel importation for mixing purposes and replace it with domestic coal.
The power sector is a major user of the coal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi also gave directions for targeting the substitution of thermal coal imports, particularly when huge inventories of coal stocks are available in the country this year.
Coal minister Pralhad Joshi had written to state chief ministers earlier, asking them not to import coal and use CIL’s domestic supply, which has the fuel in abundance. Coal imports from the country increased slightly by 3.2 per cent in 2019-20 to 242.97 MT.
