Reversing the trend, India’s coal import fell by 20% at 15.73 million tonnes during January as against 19.75 Mt in December, 2014 due to lower demand from domestic steel makers. The January imports, however, were a marginal 2% more than the 15.37 MT imports in the same month of last year. Notably, Indian power companies have imported 163 MT stem coal out of the country's total coal imports of 210.55 MT in the entire 2014, accounting for more than 77% of imports.
Of the total imports during January this year, non-coking coal rose marginally higher at 15.91 MT compared to 15.36 MT in December, led by higher demand from country's fuel-hungry power plants, which have been battling fuel scarcity for a long time now.
Besides, imports of metallurgical coke, which is also used by the steel firms, were down to 98,770 tonnes from 1.76 lakh tonnes. Petroleum coke imports also decreased to 4.78 lakh tonnes from 6.9 lakh tonnes in December, 2014. Moreover, there was no import of pulverized coal in January as against 2.9 lakh tonnes in the previous month.
On the flip side, Anthracite coal imports rose to 52,293 tonnes in January from 33,190 tonnes in December 2014. Additionally, India's imported coal stocks, including steam coal and coking coal at eight major and two private ports rose by 2.27% to 8.207 MT in January-end against 8.025 MT as on December 26.