IMAN: India’s import – coal & coke

Economy highlights

• February 2021 total coal and coke imports at 15.991 million t have seen a steep 30.4% fall over February 2020 import figure of 22.977 million t and are 23.75% lower than the 20.972 million t imported in January 2021.
• Thermal coal imports declined by 42.8% to 9.791 million t from 17.117 million t in February 2020 and are 30.51% lower than the 14.091 million t imported in January 2021.
• Petcoke imports saw a sharper contraction of 67.42% at 0.232 million in February 2021 as compared to 0.712 million t in February 2020.
• Coking coal imports continue to remain strong in February with imports at 4.786 million t, up 219.62% as compared to 4.001 million t imported in February 2020. However, coking coal has also lost some momentum since December 2020 (5.569 million t) and January 2021 (5.165 million t).
• In the first 2 months of 2021, thermal coal imports were down by 25.59% at 23.883 million t as compared to 32.094 million t in January – February 2020. However, coking coal imports are up by 26.06% at 9.993 million t compared to 7.927 million t in January – February 2020.
• The restrictions imposed by China on imports of Australian coal have led to some price distortions in the market. As a result, Indonesian prices surged whilst Australian origin coal prices remained soft. This led to a reduction in India’s imports of Indonesian origin coal and a surge in Australian coal imports.
• In the first 2 months of 2021, Indonesian thermal coal imports decreased by 31.3% to 13.341 million t down from the 19.419 million t imported in January – February 2020.
• Australian thermal coal imports surged by almost 300% to 4.349 million t from 1.087 million t imported in January – February 2020. US origin coal imports also surged by 98.81% to 1.713 million t as compared to 0.861 million t imported in January – February 2020.

Power update

India's power consumption grew 0.88% in February at 104.73 billion units (BU) due to a slight rise in temperature in the month, official data showed. Power consumption in February 2020 was 103.81 BU, according to the power ministry data. However, the peak power demand met, which is the highest supply in a day, recorded a growth of 6.7% at 188.15 GW in February 2021 compared to 176.38 GW in February 2020.

After a gap of 6 months, power consumption recorded a 4.5% y/y growth in September and 11.6% in October. In November 2020, the power consumption growth slowed to 3.12%, mainly due to the early onset of winters. In December, power consumption grew by 4.5% while it was 4.8% in January 2021.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/coal/23032021/iman-indias-import-coal-coke/