Low consumption drags on Indian coking coal imports

Indian coking coal import volumes rose slightly in April-December from a year earlier as steel producers cut production rates in the fourth quarter on weak demand.

India imported 42.4mn t in the first nine months of fiscal year 2019-20 beginning in April, up by 1.5pc from April-December 2018, according to data from the Indian Ports Association (IPA).

The IPA data did not include a breakdown of countries that exported coking coal to India. Only nine of the 12 ports in the data received coking coal shipments in April-December.

The port of Kolkata handled the most coking coal imports during the period at 12.9mn t, down by 10pc year-on-year. The total included 11.1mn t received at Haldia and 1.7mn t at the Kolkata Dock System.

Coking coal imports at Paradip were 9mn t in April-December, down by 5pc from the same period a year earlier. April-December imports at Mormugao in Goa state increased by 31pc year-on-year to 5.9mn t, while volumes at the port of Vizag rose by 16pc to 5.8mn t for the same period.

April-December imports at Chidambaranar, Tamil Nadu were 4.5mn t, while volumes at Mumbai and New Mangalore were 2.3mn t and 541,000t respectively.

The port of Ennore received 678,000t of coking coal from April to December while the port of Deendayal imported 697,000t, but the ports of Chennai, Cochin and Jawaharla Nehru did not receive any coking coal imports during the period.

By Dylan Wong