'Coal import in June quarter rises 4% to 58 MT'

India imported 57.99 million tonne(MT) of coal in April-June, registering an increase of 4.1 per cent from the same quarter of 2017-18.

Coal import in the year-ago period stood at 55.69 MT, as per the latest data from mjunction services, an online procurement and sales entity jointly floated by state-owned SAIL and Tata Steel.

"Overall, coal and coke imports during the first 3 months (April-June) of 2018-19 stood at 57.99 MT, about 4.1 per cent higher than 55.69 MT recorded for the same period last year," it said.

Steam coal import was up 3.6 per cent at 39.98 MT as compared to the same quarter of the previous year.

"Coal import (all types of coal) in June 2018 stood at 18.75 MT (provisional), lower than 20.98 MT (revised) in May 2018," it said.

Import in June declined mainly due to a slump in coking and non-coking coal shipments.
mjunction CEO Vinaya Varma said:"Even as the power plants continued to face coal shortage, the multi-year-high prices in spot steam coal market restricted import volumes. The numbers may go up in coming months if there is a correction in prices, going forward." Coal minister Piyush Goyal recently in a reply to question in Rajya Sabha said during 2017-18, coal imports increased to 208.27 MT due to rise in demand from consuming sectors.

Coal import has fallen from 217.7 MT in 2014-15 to 190.9 MT in 2016-17, he had said.