India’s coal imports rose by 30% in 2022-23 on y-o-y basis, says report

New Delhi: India’s coal imports increased by 30 percent in FY 2022-23 on year-on-year basis as imports clocked 162.46 Million Tonnes (MT) against 124.99 MT in the year-ago period, said a report by mjunction. The import of coking coal rose 5.44 percent to 54.46 MT over 51.65 MT in FY 2021-22, the report said. Coking coal is the coal used by non-power sectors like cement, steel and aluminium, etc. India does not have large reserves of coking coal and is heavily dependent on imports. The country only has world’s fifth-largest reserves of non-coking coal.

“In March alone, the non-coking coal import stood at 13.88 MT against 12.61 MT in the same month last year. Coking coal imports were 3.96 MT against 4.76 MT imported in March 2022,” said the report.

Rise in coal imports: Trend likely to continue

“The persistently high demand for steam coal in India coupled with the weakening of seaborne prices led to increased volumes during March. This trend is likely to continue in coming months in view of the above-normal average temperature expected this summer,” mjunction MD & CEO Vinaya Varma said.

Along with other varieties of coal like anthracite, pulverised coal injection (PCI coal), met coke and pet coke, the total imports in FY23 were at 249.06 MT, up from 200.71 MT FY22, a rise of over 24 percent, said the report.

An e-commerce platform, Mjunction Services Limited is a 50:50 joint venture promoted by Steel Authority of India (SAIL) and Tata Steel.

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