Coal import drops by 20% to nearly 19 million tonnes in May, says report

The nation’s coal import dropped by 20 per cent to 18.93 million tonnes (MT) final month, business information confirmed.

The authorities is planning to deliver the nation’s ‘avoidable coal imports’ to zero by 2023-24. Demand for coal import is anticipated to stay subdued within the short-term given the excessive coal inventory ranges in pithead and energy crops, in accordance with mjunction.

The coal import in May final yr stood at 23.57 MT, it mentioned. mjunction — a three way partnership between Tata Steel and SAIL — is a B2B e-commerce firm that additionally publishes analysis stories on coal and metal verticals. However, coal import throughout final month by means of the foremost and non-major ports is estimated to have elevated by 10.76 per cent over April 2020, in accordance with a provisional compilation by mjunction providers restricted, primarily based on monitoring of vessels’ positions and information obtained from delivery firms.

“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 mentioned.

Import of coal in May stood at 18.93 MT (provisional) as in comparison with 17.09 MT (revised) in April 2020, mjunction mentioned. Of the overall imports final month, the import of non-coking coal was at 13.22 MT, towards 12.28 MT in April.

Coking coal imports had been at 3.81 MT in May, up from 3.23 MT imported a month in the past.

During April-May, complete coal import was at 36.02 MT, registering a decline of 27.83 per cent from 49.90 MT imported throughout the identical interval of the earlier yr.

During April-May, non-coking coal imports stood at 25.50 MT, from 35.35 MT imported throughout April-May 2019.

Coking coal imports had been at 7.04 MT throughout April-May, down from 8.77 MT earlier.

Coal India Ltd (CIL), which accounts for over 80 per cent of the home gas output, has been mandated by the federal government to switch at the very least 100 MT of imports with domestically-produced coal within the ongoing fiscal.

The Centre had earlier requested energy producing firms, together with NTPC, Tata Power and Reliance Power, to scale back import of the dry gas for mixing functions and change it with home coal.

The energy sector is a key coal shopper.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had additionally given instructions to focus on thermal coal import substitution, significantly when enormous coal inventory stock is accessible within the nation this yr.

Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi had earlier written to state chief ministers asking them to not import coal and take home provide from CIL, which has the gas in abundance.

The nation’s coal imports elevated marginally by 3.2 per cent to 242.97 MT in 2019-20.