India's coking coal port stocks rise 1.4% w-o-w - Week 36, 2024

• SAIL's stocks remain stable, while Tata Steel sees slight increase
  
  

Coking coal stocks at major Indian ports were assessed at around 4.57 million tonnes (mnt) in week 36 of CY'24, a 1.4% increase from 4.51 mnt in week 35, according to BigMint data.

Company-wise break-up

• SAIL's coking coal port stocks remained nearly stable at 1.60 mnt in week 36, registering a marginal 0.2% decrease from the previous week.
  
  
• Coking coal stocks of JSW Steel (including Bhushan) inched down to 0.41 mnt.
  
  
• Tata Steel saw a 2% increase in stocks to 1.02 mnt from 1.00 mnt in week 35.
  
  

Port-wise break-up

• Haldia Port: Coking coal stocks declined 6.3% to 0.96 mnt from 1.02 mnt in week 35.
  
  
• Paradip Port: Stocks dipped by 6.7%, down to 1.20 mnt from 1.29 mnt.
  
  
• Dhamra Port: In contrast, stocks surged 24% to 1.10 mnt from 0.89 mnt in the previous week.
  
  

Market overview

The slide in steel prices continued into September, as indicated by the BigMint India Composite Steel Index, which lost another 0.6% to end the week at 131.2 points on 6 September 2024. The flat steel sub-index fell 1.05%, but longs remained largely flat w-o-w. The longs index remained slightly supported, as tier-1 mills raised rebar prices by up to INR 500-1,000/t ($6-12/t) for early September sales. On cue, trade-level blast furnace-route rebars also went up, by INR 300/t ($4/t) w-o-w to INR 50,600/t ($603/t) ex-Mumbai, exclusive of 18% GST.

The fall in steel prices has weighed on coking coal prices. Australian coking coal prices corrected downward by $13 w-o-w. A fall in futures, along with demand concerns in China, weighed on offers.