India's coal import declines 12% to 181 mn tonnes in April-January

India's coal import registered a drop of 11.59 per cent to 180.84 million tonnes (MT) in the first 10 months of the ongoing fiscal.

The company had imported 204.55 MT of coal in April-January period of the previous fiscal year, according to provisional data compiled by mjunction services.

mjunction -- a joint venture of Tata Steel and SAIL -- is a B2B e-commerce company and also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals.

However, India's coal imports in January increased to 20.05 MT as against 18.67 MT in year-ago period, it said.

Commenting on the coal import trend, mjunction MD and CEO Vinaya Varma said, "There was a drop in January volumes as compared to the previous month (December). This was mainly due to the firmness in seaborne prices. While there is steady demand in the market, the import trend will largely depend on the movements in international prices, freight rates and also domestic supply."

Coal import was, however, 7.4 percent higher in January 2021 as compared to 18.67 MT in the year-ago period.

Of the total imports in January 2021, non-coking coal was at 12.77 MT, while coking coal import was 5.62 MT.

During April-January 2020-21, non-coking coal import was at 119.84 MT as compared to 140.65 MT in the same period a year ago.

Coking coal import was recorded at 39.16 MT, lower than 41.15 MT imported during the same period a year ago.