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India coal imports flat in June as local supply jumps – trade

India’s coal imports in June were largely flat at 20.18 million tonnes from a year ago, provisional data from commodities trader mjunction showed, as state behemoth Coal India ramped up supplies under a sustained government push.

Reviving output from India’s nationalised coal industry has been one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s achievements, one he hopes will secure uninterrupted power to all and eat into an annual coal import bill of about $15 billion.

“With the increase in domestic production, there was always a likelihood of imports falling,” Coal Secretary Anil Swarup told Reuters. “As production grows further, imports will go down gradually.”

Coal India’s April-June output rose 12 percent to 121.3 million tonnes as it opened new mines and received environmental approvals to expand existing ones. The government wants to double its output to 1 billion tonnes by 2019/20, and stop imports of power-generating coal by then.

“There is ample availability of domestic coal due to higher production by Coal India and demand for coal from power plants appears to be on the lower side due to comparatively low demand for electricity from distribution companies,” said mjunction Chief Executive and Managing Director Viresh Oberoi.

Government data on coal imports into India, the third largest buyer in the world, generally lags and varies from data from private firms such as mjunction, which collects information from more ports and includes additional coal grades.
Source: Reuters