India records Highest ever Coal Imports in FY20, Up by 3% y-o-y basis
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According to the vessel line-up data maintained with CoalMint research, India's total coal imports (excluding pet coke) in FY20 stands to be at 249.5 MnT against 242.3 MnT in previous fiscal of FY19.
Type of coal import:
| COMMODITIES | FY19 | FY20 | Y--o-Y Change |
| NON COKING COAL | 182.7 | 187.4 | 3% |
| COKING COAL | 53.4 | 57.6 | 8% |
| MET COKE | 4.9 | 2.9 | -39% |
| ANTHRACITE | 1.3 | 1.6 | 22% |
| TOTAL | 242.3 | 249.5 | 3% |
In case of types of coal imported, highest imports were made of non-coking coal used for power generation at 182.7 MnT, up by 2.5% y-o-y basis followed by coking coal imports used for steel production at 58 MnT, up by 7.8% y-o-y basis.
Country-wise import:
In FY20 India's highest coal imports came from Indonesia (116 MnT), followed by Australia (49 MnT), South Africa (45 MnT), USA (12 MnT) and Russia (8 MnT)/
Port wise import:
Mundra port contributed to the largest coal imports in FY20 at 33.9 MnT and Gangavaram stood second largest port for coal imports at 20 MnT.
Non-coking coal imports at 187 MnT
In FY20, although Indonesia contributed to highest imports (114.7 MnT), major increase in imports have been recorded from South Africa (up by 23%) and Russia (up by 25%).
Highest thermal coal importer in FY20 is Adani at 35.9 MnT followed by Agarwal Coal at 12.5 MnT Coastal Gujarat at 10.9 MnT and Swiss Singapore at 7.7 MnT.
Coking coal Import in FY20 at 57.5 MnT
Australia is the largest coking coal exporter to India in FY20 at 42 MnT (up by 4.5% Y-o-Y), followed by Canada at 5 MnT(replaced to USA in FY20).
Import of coking coal from Russia registered a growth of 112% at 3.29 MnT in FY20 and highest ever
In FY20 highest buyer of coking coal was SAIL at 14.6 MnT followed by JSW at 11.5 MnT and Tata Steel at 11.4 MnT.
Why- the import surge?
Coal is among the top five commodities imported by India, the world's largest consumer, importer and producer of the fuel. While higher coal imports may be bad news for the Indian government, they benefit international miners such as Indonesia's Adaro Energy, U.S. coal miner Peabody Energy Corp and global commodity merchants such as Glencore.
According to the sources, coal imports grew largely due to lower production by Coal India Ltd, whose output fell for five consecutive months ending November due to the highest annual rainfall in 25 years and frequent outages including strikes by workers and locals.
Higher coal shipments to India were also due to increased imports by Indian utilities, whose imports rebounded after a three-year slide mainly due to increased purchases by an Adani Power plant in western India.
