Coal import drops in November

New Delhi: The country's coal import declined by 22.5 per cent to 15.78 million tonnes (MT) in November 2021 compared to 20.35 MT in the same month of last year.

"India's coal and coke imports during November 2021 through the major and non-major ports are estimated to have decreased by 22.5 percent over November 2020," mjunction services said.

mjunction -- a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL -- is a B2B e-commerce company and also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals.

On a month-on-month basis, coal imports in November 2021 increased marginally by 0.21 per cent as against 15.75 MT imported in October 2021, it said.

Of the total imports, non-coking coal import was at 8.93 MT against 13.77 MT in November last year. Coking coal imports were at 4.90 MT, up against 4.28 MT imported in November 2020.

During April-November period of the current fiscal, total coal and coke import stood at 138.87 MT, about 1.25 per cent higher than 137.16 MT imported during April-November 2020.

During April-November period of FY'22, non-coking coal import was at 88.47 MT as compared to 91.44 MT imported during April-November period of the last fiscal. Coking coal import was recorded at 35.40 MT, higher than 28.18 MT imported during April-November period of the last fiscal.

Commenting on the coal import trend, Vinaya Varma, MD and CEO, mjunction, said, "As per expectation, India's import demand was subdued as the festive season was over and domestic supplies improved. Hence, there was not much impact of the softening of seaborne prices on volumes imported. This trend is likely to continue in the coming month as well."