India Nov thermal coal imports at 9-month low as local output soars

India’s thermal coal imports fell to the lowest levels in 9 months during November, data from consultancy Coalmint showed, mainly due to a rise in domestic coal production.

The country imported 10.83 million tonnes of thermal coal in November, the Coalmint data showed, compared with 12.03 million tonnes in October and 9.45 million tonnes in November 2021.

Imports fell mainly due to higher production by state-run Coal India, which accounts for 80% of India’s coal output.

The world’s largest coal miner has seen output increase by a sixth to 412.6 million tonnes during the first eight months of this financial year, putting it on track to meet annual production targets for the first time since at least 2010.

The decline in shipments of the power generation fuel in November marked the fifth straight month when imports fell compared with the previous month, the data showed.

Imports of coking coal – used mainly in steelmaking – fell to 4.56 million tonnes from 4.95 million tonnes in October and 5.3 million tonnes in November 2021.

India is the world’s second-largest importer, consumer and producer of coal, and counts Indonesia, Australia, South Africa, Russia and United States as its major suppliers.

Overall imports of coal and coke products metcoke and petcoke rose 8.5% to 17.87 million tonnes, the Coalmint data showed.

The share of coal and coke imports from Indonesia and Russia rose at the expense of Australia and South Africa. Russia and the United States were the only countries from which overall shipments increased, the data showed.

(This story has been corrected to fix the headline and paragraph 1 to say 9-month low)

(Reporting by Sudarshan Varadhan; editing by Uttaresh.V)

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