Coal imports drop 11% to 18 MT in July
29/08/2016 00:02
Coal imports in July fell by 11.1 per cent to 18.03 million tonnes (MT) weighed down by higher domestic availability of fossil fuel, as per the media reports. It was at 20.29 MT during the same month previous fiscal, according to mjunction services, an online procurement and sales platform jointly floated by SAIL and Tata Steel. Commenting on the development, mjunction, CEO and MD, Viresh Oberoi said, quoted PTI that, “The decline in July imports this year against (the same month) last year can be attributed to no. of factors, including monsoon, when imports generally come down.” Oberoi further added that, “In addition, firmness in international coal prices since beginning of June and higher availability of domestic coal also impacted imports.” Further, with many imported coal-based load power plants operating at lower utilisation, the overall volume of imports is likely to remain flat. Out of the 18.03 MT of imported coal, non-coking coal was highest at 12.39 MT, coking coal was at 3.76 MT, pet coke at 1.05 MT, among others. Coal imports in June, however, had gone up by 20.19 MT as compared to 19.63 MT in the same month of 2015. Earlier, government said that coal imports will further come down in the ongoing fiscal on account of increased domestic output.
