Coal India Ltd. to enhance coking coal production to over 100 mnt by 2030

*FY'23 production target at 51 mnt

*Production aim for 2025 at over 80 mnt

*Coal Ministry aiming for 140 mnt output by 2030

*Washed coal delivery to steel sector should exceed 15 mnt by FY'30

The world's leading coal miner, Coal India Ltd. (CIL), has drawn up a strategic plan to raise domestic coking coal production to around 105 million tonnes (mnt) by 2030-31 even as the mid-term target for 2025 remains at around 81 mnt, highly-placed CIL sources told CoalMint on the sidelines of the India Coal Outlook Conference 2022 held on 3-4 August in New Delhi.

The 'scarcity' of high-grade domestic coking coal reserves to feed the ever-rising demand from the iron and steel industry may well be a thing of the past if the Ministry of Coal's (MoC) target of raising raw coking coal production to 140 mnt by 2030 is taken seriously.

According to the National Steel Policy (NSP) 2017, to achieve steelmaking capacity of 300 mnt (including 181 mnt through the blast furnace route) by FY'30, huge volumes of coking coal would be required.

CoalMint estimates the requirement at 170 mnt of domestic raw coking coal. Presently, the Indian steel industry fulfils more than 70% of its coking coal requirements through imports.

Sources in CIL told CoalMint that the state-run miner's coking coal production target in FY'23 is around 51 mnt, while production in the preceding fiscal was 46.606 mnt.

Reserves

India has more than 35 billion tonnes (bnt) of coking coal reserves, of which 20 bnt are proved reserves, while the remaining 15 bnt are indicated and inferred reserves. Out of the 35 bnt of coking coal reserves, 18.83 bnt are in the coal blocks which are with CIL, while the remaining are non-CIL blocks.

CIL's coking coal blocks

A senior CIL source informed: "As far as the CIL blocks are concerned, about 8.76 bnt have been projectized till date, while 1.44 bnt is expected to be projectized by FY'30. Over 5 bnt is expected to be projectized beyond FY'30, while 3.3 bnt can't be projectized because of technical or other constraints."

Coking coal is washed to reduce the ash percentage and Indian prime coking coal and medium coking coal (with less than 18% ash) is blended with imported coking coal (around 9% ash) before utilisation in coke ovens to make met coke for feeding into the blast furnace.

"As per NSP 2017, the targeted steel production by FY'30 will be 300 mnt of which 181 mnt would be through the blast furnace route i.e. nearly three-fold increase is targeted in the blast furnace route steelmaking capacity from the present," the senior CIL official said.

Washed coal

CIL has 95 coking coal blocks out of which 65 are fully explored, whereas 30 are partly explored, regionally explored or unexplored.

Projections related to the delivery of washed coking coal are to the tune of 15.06 mnt by FY'30. Out of this, the Central Coalfields Ltd. (CCL) is expected to contribute around 7.58 mnt, while Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. (BCCL) should churn out 7.48 mnt.

The existing CIL washeries have capacity of 14.6 mnt/year. The state-run miner has planned another 30.5 mnt/year of raw coking coal washing capacity to be commissioned by FY'30. This will add up to 45 mnt/year by FY'30.

CIL, therefore, is expected to play an integral role in catering to the rising coal demand of the Indian steel industry, while keeping costly imports in check.

-Story by Nirmalya Deb