India is exploring the option for domestic steel companies to source coking coal from Mongolia, a government official said on Tuesday, January 19.
The official said that in a video conference between India’s steel minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Mongolia’s chief cabinet secretary L Oyun Erdene the latter declared the keenness of Mongolian companies to supply coking coal to India.
In response, the Indian minister, expressing interest in such supplies, said that government-to-government dialogue will be taken forward to enable Indian steel companies to start sourcing coking coal from Mongolia.
Previously, the Indian government initiated several rounds of talks with the Russian government to enable Indian steel companies to import coking coal from Russia.
Following successful dialogue and the establishment of a framework for greater cooperation in the coal sector, India’s Tata Steel last year commenced imports of coking coal from Russia on a trial basis, aiming to reduce the strong import dependency on Australian coking coal.
