Thermal coal imports at major ports dip 17% to 30MT in Apr-Jul

Thermal and steam coal imports fell by 17.37 per cent at the country's top 12 major ports to 29.82 million tonnes (MT) during the April-July period of this fiscal, according to the Indian Ports Association (IPA).
These 12 ports, under the control of the Centre, had handled 36.09 MT of thermal and steam coal during the same period of the last fiscal.
This comes in the wake of the government saying last week that on account of enhanced production by Coal India, the country has moved from a regime of coal scarcity to a coal surplus situation.
Thermal coal is the mainstay of India's energy programme as 70 per cent of power generation is dependent on the dry fuel.

Handling of coking coal, which is used mainly for steel- making, also dipped by 4.45 per cent to 16.51 MT, as per the latest data released by the IPA.
These ports had handled 17.27 MT of coking coal in April-July period of 2016-17.

Together, they handled 46.33 MT coal during the April- July period of the current fiscal as against 53.36 MT in the same period of the previous year.
India is the third-largest producer of coal after China and the US and has 299 billion tonnes of resources and 123 billion tonnes of proven reserves, which may last for over 100 years.

The country has 12 major ports - Kandla, Mumbai, JNPT, Marmugao, New Mangalore, Cochin, Chennai, Ennore, V.O. Chidambarnar, Visakhapatnam, Paradip and Kolkata (including Haldia) - which handle approximately 65 per cent of the country's total cargo traffic.
Thermal coal is used in power generation.
The Centre has announced plans to boost Coal India's annual production to the level of 1 billion tonnes by 2019 to meet growing fuel demand.