Industry data showed that in May, India’s coal imports fell as the government plans to cut unavoidable coal imports to zero by 2023-2024.
Last month, India’s coal imports went down by 20% year-on-year to 18.93 million tonnes.
However, month-on-month, coal imports still rose by 10.76% as the economy had partly restarted in the month, combined with the continuous weak coal prices globally.
In May, the purchase of non-coking coal was at 13.22 million tonnes, from 12.28 million tonnes in April. Coking coal imports were at 3.81 million tonnes, compared to 3.23 million tonnes in the previous month.
In the April-May period, total coal imports posted a 27.83% decrease year-on-year at 36.02 million tonnes. Non-coking coal imports were at 25.50 million tonnes from 35.35 million tonnes in the same period a year ago. Coking coal imports were at 7.04 million tonnes, down from 8.77 million tonnes a year ago.
The Indian government has ordered Coal India Ltd. (CIL) to replace at least 100 million tonnes of imports with domestically-produced coal this fiscal year. Power generating firms have also been commanded to decrease coal imports and to replace them with domestic coal.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also given directions to target thermal coal import substitution, particularly when huge coal inventory is available in the country this year.
In the fiscal year of 2019-2020, India’s coal imports climbed a tad by 3.2% to 242.97 million tonnes.
