Latest News | India's Coal Import Drops 43% in July Owing to High Stockpile at Pitheads, Plants

New Delhi, Aug 9 (PTI) India's coal import fell 43.2 per cent to 11.13 million tonnes (MT) in July this year on account of high stockpile of the dry fuel at pitheads, plants and ports.

The country had imported 19.61 MT of coal in July 2019, according to a provisional compilation, by mjunction services limited, based on monitoring of vessels' positions and data received from shipping companies.

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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.

"Imports in July 2020 stood at 11.13 million tonnes (provisional)... Earlier, coal and coke imports in July 2019 stood at 19.61 MT," it said.

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During April-July 2020, total coal imports were recorded at 57.27 MT, which is 35.76 per cent lower than 89.15 MT imported during April-July 2019, it said.

Commenting on the current trend in coal imports, mjunction managing director and chief executive Vinaya Varma said, "Import demand continued to be weak amidst high stockpile of coal at pitheads, plants and ports. The market participants seem to have adopted a wait and watch approach and are currently looking for a direction. We do not expect to see any significant variation in volumes in the short-term."

During April-July 2020, non-coking coal imports stood at 38.84 MT as compared to 60.97 MT imported in the corresponding period last year.

"Coking coal imports were at 10.67 MT during April-July, down from 17.73 MT imported during the same period last year," mjunction services said.

The government had earlier mandated state-owned Coal India, which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output, to replace at least 100 MT of imports with domestically-produced coal in 2020-21.

CIL had last month said that coal production in some of the major mines is still affected due to high stock and less offtake.

Pithead stock of CIL as on July 16 was 72.88 MT as compared to 33.17 MT in the same period a year ago, it had said.

The mahratna firm had said that the despatch of coal was adversely affected in the last week of March resulting into mounting coal stock at pithead.

Coal stock as on March 31 was 74.629 MT, compared to 54.155 MT on March 31, 2019.

The Centre had earlier asked power generating companies, including NTPC, Tata Power and Reliance Power, to reduce import of the dry fuel for blending purposes and replace it with domestic coal.

The power sector is a key coal consumer.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had also given directions to target thermal coal import substitution, particularly when huge coal stock inventory is available in the country this year.

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

The country's coal imports increased marginally by 3.2 per cent to 242.97 MT in 2019-20. PTI SID MKJ 08091101 NNNNoff for bringing down Bad Dost just before the line. The defender was initially shown his second yellow card and Frankfurt awarded a penalty, but the decision was changed to a straight red and a free kick after a VAR consultation.

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Frankfurt's second goal in the 62nd was arguably the goal of the round. Japanese midfielder Daichi Kamada dribbled past three Hertha defnders and cut the ball back for André Silva to score with the back of his heel.

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(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)