The country’s coal imports decreased by 20 per cent to 18.93 million tons ( MT) last month, industry data showed.
The government plans to reduce the country’s ‘avoidable coal imports’ to zero by 2023-24.
The demand for coal imports is expected to remain subdued in the short term, despite the high levels of coal in pitheads and power plants, according to Mjunction.
The coal imports in May last year amounted to 23.57 MT, it said. 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.
However, over the last month, coal imports through major and non-major ports are estimated to have increased by 10.76 per cent over April 2020, according to the provisional compilation of limited mjunction services, based on the monitoring of vessel positions and data received from shipping companies.
“The slight uptick in May imports over the previous month might have resulted from the partial re-start of operations in some sectors as well as the continued softness in coal prices in the international markets.
“However, given the high coal stock levels in pithead and power plants, we expect import demand to remain subdued in the short-term,” mjunction MD and CEO Vinaya Varma said.
The import of coal in May was 18.93 MT (provisional) compared to 17.09 MT (revised) in April 2020.
Of the total imports last month, imports of non-coking coal amounted to 13.22 MT, compared to 12.28 MT in April.
Coking coal imports were 3.81 MT in May, up from 3.23 MT imported a month ago.
During April-May, total coal imports amounted to 36,02 MT, with a decrease of 27,83 per cent from 49,90 MT imported during the same duration of the previous year.
During April-May, imports of non-coking coal amounted to 25.50 MT, out of 35.35 MT imported during April-May 2019.
Coking coal imports were 7.04 MT in April-May, down from 8.77 MT earlier.
Coal India Ltd (CIL), which accounts for more than 80 per cent of domestic fuel production, has been mandated by the Government to replace at least 100 MT of imports with domestically produced coal in the ongoing fiscal year.
The Center had previously asked power generators, including NTPC, Tata Power and Reliance Power, to reduce the import of dry fuel for blending purposes and to replace it with domestic coal.
The power sector is a key consumer of coal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also provided directions to target substitution of thermal coal imports , especially when there is a large inventory of coal stocks available in the country this year.
Previously, Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi had written to state chief ministers asking them not to import coal and pick up domestic supplies from CIL, which has abundance of fuel.
The country’s coal imports increased marginally by 3.2% to 242.97 MT in 2019-20.
