Despite announcing a sharp price cut last month, India’s sole domestic coking coal producer Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL) has been unable to significantly reduce pithead stocks, company sources said on Tuesday, March 2.
The sources said that BCCL, a wholly-owned operational subsidiary of state-run Coal India Limited (CIL), has been able to liquidate coking coal stocks to only 1.6 million mt to date from the level of 2.5 million mt early last month when the miner announced a drastic cut of 23 percent in its W-IV grade coking coal prices to INR 2,675/mt ($36.64/mt).
The sources said that demand for domestic coking coal was not recovering even though imports were showing signs of an upturn.
They said that tepid demand and the low off-take of domestic coking coal was part of the overall slow off-take of coal, with CIL reporting a total off-take of coal in February of 51.2 million mt, down from 54.9 million mt during the corresponding month of the previous year.