Coal imports decline 22% in January

Coal imports by India declined 22% in January 2017 to 14.31 million tonnes from 18.28 million tonnes in January last year. The drop in imports was mainly due to drop in demand from state distribution companies (discoms) as they were saddled with oversupplies.

The Central government and state power sector utilities are planning to reduce the dependency on imported coal in the next 3-4 months, replacing imports with domestic coal.

The good monsoon in FY17 has impacted adversely the demand for thermal power in the country, which resulted in decline in the offtake from state discoms and power utilities.

The government is also focusing on slowly reducing dependency on thermal energy generation and shifting more towards renewable sources. Such a shift will impact demand for imported coal in the near future. 

However, there was marginal drop in non-coking coal imports for the month of January 2017 as compared to December 2016. This was because non-power sector consumers stopped restocking as steam coal prices paused the downward trend in January 2017.