India and Russia have signed an agreement for collaboration in the mining and steel sector, with the focus on India buying coking coal from Russia, an Indian government statement said on Friday, October 15.
The agreement between the two countries was signed by Ram Chandra Prasad Singh, India’s minister of steel, and Nikolay Shulginov, Russia’s minister of energy.
The agreement between the two countries, signed in Moscow, envisages implementation of joint projects and commercial activities in coking coal, including long-term supplies of high-quality coking coal to India, development of coking coal deposits and logistics development, sharing of experience in coking coal production management, technologies of mining, beneficiation and processing as well as training, the government statement said.
Currently, Indian steel companies are entirely dependent on shipping of coking coal predominantly from Australia, except for Tata Steel and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) which source about 25-30 percent of their coking coal domestically.