Coal imports decline to 192 MT in FY17

Import of coal saw a decline of 6.37% to 191.95 million tonnes (MT) in 2016-17 on higher production by CIL that saw the country move to a regime of surplus coal.

Comparatively, in 2015-16 fiscal, coal imports stood at 203.95 MT, as per official data by the government.

“On enhanced production by Coal India (CIL), the country has moved from a regime of coal scarcity to a coal surplus situation,” the document said.

Against the demand of 884.87 MT of coal, the total domestic production stood at 659.27 MT, it said.
The Centre has announced plans to boost CIL’s annual production to the level of 1 billion tonnes by 2019 to meet the growing fuel demand.

Under the provisions of the Coal Mines (Special Provisional) Act, 2015, 30 mines have been allocated to private sector companies by way of auction for specified end uses till date. The ongoing fiscal also shows a declining trend, especially of thermal coal.

Thermal and steam coal imports have fallen 17.37% at the top 12 major ports to 29.82 MT during April-July this fiscal, according to the Indian Ports Association (IPA).

The ports had handled 36.09 MT of thermal and steam coal during the same period of the previous fiscal.

Thermal coal is the mainstay of India’s energy programme as 70% of power generation is dependent on the dry fuel.

Handling of coking coal, used mainly in steel-making, has also dipped 4.45% to 16.51 MT, as per the latest data released by the IPA.