India's coal imports increased by over 30 per cent in February to nearly 18 million tonnes led by higher demand from power utilities.
Mjunction, which compiles data that based on monitoring of vessels' positions and data from shipping companies, said imports stood at 17.94 MT last month, compared to 13.72 MT in February last year.
Data compiled by mjunction, an even joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL, showed that month-on-month coal and coke imports in February this year were estimated to have declined 11.6 per cent compared to January. India had imported 20.29 MT coal and coke in the first month of this year.
Of the total imports during February, non-coking coal was estimated at 13.61 MT. This type of the fuel is mainly used for generation of power. Coking coal, used by steel-makers, imports stood at 3.5 MT in February.
Metallurgical coke imports during the month stood at 1.38 lakh tonnes while petroleum coke imports were at 4.95 lakh tonnes. The import of Pulverised coal was recorded at 0.8 lakh tonnes and anthracite coal imports at 0.78 lakh tonnes.
