IMAN: India’s import – coal and coke

Economy highlights

November 2020 solid fuel imports at 22.24 million t are sustaining pre-pandemic monthly average levels. The imports are higher than the 22.07 million t imported in November 2019 however, sequentially November imports were lower than October 2020 imports by 6.36% at 23.76 million t.

Whilst the economy continues to expand, it lost momentum in November. The seasonally adjusted IHS Markit India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) fell from 58.9 in October to a 3 month low of 56.3 in November, indicating that the manufacturing sector growth remained strong, despite losing traction.

In the first half of December, business activity in India surged to another post-lockdown high with the Nomura India Business Resumption Index (NIBRI) hitting 92.9 for the week ended 13 December 2020. The weekly business resumption tracker showed a strong gain from the 89.6 recorded in the previous week, Nomura said in a note on Monday.

Power

India's power consumption grew 4.8% to 50.36 billion units (BU) in the first half of December 2020, showing consistency in economic activities, as per government data. Power consumption was recorded at 48.04 BU during 1 – 15 December 2019, according to the power ministry data.

After a gap of 6 months, power consumption recorded a y/y growth of 4.4% in September and 11.6% in October.

In November, the power consumption growth slowed to 3.7% to 97.43 BU compared to 93.94 BU in the same month last year mainly due to early onset of winters.

The growth in power consumption in the first half of November shows that there is consistency in improvement in commercial and industrial demand due to easing of lockdown restrictions, experts say.

However, they think the impact of weather change would not sustain for long in rest of the winter season because economic activities are almost near pre-pandemic levels.

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/special-reports/04012021/iman-indias-import-coal-and-coke/