Coronavirus impact: India's coal import drops over 27 pc to 16 MT in March

India's coal import in March stood at 15.74 million tonnes (MT), down 27.5 per cent over last year, due to restrictions imposed at various ports in the wake of coronavirus outbreak in the country.

The country had imported 21.72 MT of coal in March last year, according to a provisional compilation by mjunction services based on monitoring of vessels' positions and data received from shipping companies.

However, the country's coal import registered an increase of 3.2 per cent to242.97 MT in 2019-20.

"On a progressive basis, total coal and coke imports during 2019-20 (April 2019-March 2020) stood at 242.97 MT (provisional), about 3.24 per cent higher than 235.35 MTimportedduring the previous fiscal (April 2018-March 2019)," it said.

According to mjunction MD and CEO Vinaya Varma, "the lockdown imposed across the countries due to novel coronavirus pandemic has had a cascading effect on this sector. There was a significant drop in India's coalimportvolumes due to both demand and supply side factors, i.e. offtake, consumption, logistics and despatches".

Varmafurther said "the sentiment remains subdued and we expect volumes to keep low in the near-term".

Of the totalimportsin March 2020, non-cokingcoalwas at 11.73 MT, against 16.94 MTimportedin February 2020.

Coalminister Pralhad Joshi had earlier said the Centre will stop the "substitutable import" of coal in the next three to four years.

India imported 235 million tonnes of coal in 2018-19 valued at Rs1.7 lakh crore, Joshi had earlier said.

Covid-19 has wreaked havoc across the world, including india. There are more than 14.30 lakh declared cases of coronavirus worldwide. In India, the tally of confirmed coronavirus cases has crossed the 5000-mark.