New Delhi: India’s coal demand is expected to pick up in the third quarter of the current financial year as the industries ramp up their capacity utilization gradually overcoming covid-19 led disruptions, according to a report published by India Ratings and Research.
The agency in its report said that the country’s coal supply is also expected to improve due to easing mobility restrictions, receding inventory levels at power stations and the government’s focus on reducing coal imports.
It added that the green shoots of demand in the economy indicate a recovery path ahead. “Supported by a 4.0 percent year-on-year recovery in domestic power demand for the first time after six consecutive months of a lower demand, coal offtake recovered strongly by 26.6 per cent year-on-year to 50.1 MT in September 2020, higher than 6.3 percent month on month (mom),” it said.
Domestic coal production also bounced back sharply in September 2020, to 43.9 MT, higher than 25.3 percent year-on-year and 10.7 per cent month on month.
“Such recovery has been seen after subdued production for the four consecutive months over April-July 2020, followed by a marginal 1.8 per cent year-on-year recovery in August 2020”, the agency said in its report.
According to India Ratings, coal imports declined by 38.9 percent year-on-year over April-July 2020 whereas the share of imports in the total domestic consumption reduced to 22.0 percent over April-July 2020. Non-coking coal imports reduced 37.9 percent whereas coking coal imports declined 42.1 percent year-on-year.
