India's coal imports fall 23% during Apr-Jan 2022 as local production rises

India's imports of non-cooking coal fell to 125.61 million tons during April-January period of the current financial year, which is 23.33 per cent lower when compared with the 163.85 million tons recorded in the corresponding period of last fiscal, the government data showed on Saturday.

"With considerable increase in domestic coal production, India has achieved significant reduction in import of coal despite surge in power demand," the Ministry of Coal said in a statement.

The domestic coal-based power generation upto January 2022 is 815.72 Billion Units (BU) with an increase of 12.55 per cent over 724.746 BU during the corresponding period of FY20. Imported coal based power generation which was 78.07 BU during April to January 2020 has reduced by 55 per cent to 35.13 BU during corresponding months of current FY22.

The import of Non Coking coal primarily used in power sector has decreased by 60.87 per cent from 58.09 MT to 22.73 MT upto January 2022 in comparison to the same period of FY 20. The overall import of coal has also reduced to 173.20 MT in the period from April to January 2022 as compared to 207.235 MT during the corresponding period of FY 20, a decrease of about 16.42 per cent which has resulted in significant savings of forex reserves this year especially when the coal prices are at a high level in the international market.

"All efforts are on to further enhance domestic coal production as availability of additional coal will aid in import-substitution," the ministry said.

India is the world's third-largest energy-consuming country and electricity demand grows by 4.7 per cent each year.