India’s May coking coal imports rise 45pc on year

Market: Coking coal, Metals
01/07/25

India's coking coal imports rose year on year in May driven by a jump in shipments from Russia and Indonesia.

The country imported 7.32mn t of coking coal in May, up by 45pc from the previous year and by 13pc from April, according to data from e-commerce firm Mjunction. January-May shipments also rose by 12pc to 27.21mn t.

Lower shipments from Australia and Canada were more than offset by increases from other suppliers.

In particular, Russian shipments more than tripled to 1.90mn t from a year ago. Arrivals from Mozambique and Indonesia also rose by 53pc and 94pc respectively to 517,766t and 504,850t.

India's metallurgical coke imports fell by 41pc to 296,848 t in May. Indonesian and Chinese coke arrivals more than halved from the previous year to 120,742t and 32,995t respectively, but were higher compared to April. Meanwhile, shipments from Poland and Columbia rose by 63pc and 29pc respectively to 106,900t and 36,211t from a year ago.

Pulverised coal injection (PCI) imports fell 70pc on the year to 534,970t in May, with January-May volumes down 21pc. Both Australian and Russian volumes saw steep declines in the period at 54pc and 26pc respectively.

India's crude steel output rose by nearly 10pc on the year to 13.5mn t in May.

The Argus premium low-volatile hard coking coal index in May averaged $204.57/t cfr India, down by 22pc from the previous year.

By Romil Sethi and Xiuqi Huang

India metallurgical coal imports								'000s
Origin	May-25	May-24	± %	Apr-25	± %	Jan-May 2025	Jan-May 2024	± %

Coking coal
Australia	2,734	2,748	-1	3,063	-11	12,151	13,500	-10
US	1,290	943	+37	960	+34	4,515	4,191	+8
Canada	164	200	-18	313	-47	642	1,503	-57
Mozambique	518	339	+53	0	n/a	1,430	1,212	+18
Indonesia	505	260	+94	139	+264	1,271	1,118	+14
Russia	1,895	490	+287	1,420	+33	4,548	2,640	+72
Others	213	54	+291	559	-62	2,652	240	+1007
Total	7,319	5,035	+45	6,453	+13	27,210	24,404	+12
Met coke
Indonesia	121	266	-55	85	+42	545	843	-35
China	33	101	-67	29	+14	193	413	-53
Poland	107	66	+63	0	n/a	238	316	-25
Colombia	36	28	+29	68	-47	200	87	+129
*Total	297	502	-41	403	-26	1,624	1,859	-13
PCI
Australia	25	461	-95	173	-86	1,196	2,618	-54
Russia	477	1,303	-63	465	+3	3,890	5,287	-26
*Total	535	1,764	-70	637	-16	6,231	7,914	-21
Source: Mjunction
*Note: Total includes additional small values excluded from individual breakdown, so component numbers may not sum to total

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India’s May coking coal imports rise 45pc on year

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