Indian coking coal imports during the 2017-18 fiscal year (ends March 31) is likely to exceed the 50 million mt mark, up from 41.6 million mt shipped in last fiscal year, despite high international prices, a government official said on Friday, December 22, citing a government forecast.
The official said that, even with international coking coal prices forecast to remain above $200/mt through January-March 2018, Indian steel companies will be forced to increase imports owing to higher production by local steel mills and the shortage of domestic supplies of coking coal.
One of the reasons for the tightening of domestic supplies of coking coal is the 17 percent fall in production during April-November 2017 reported by Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), a Coal India Limited subsidiary and the sole Indian miner of coking coal, sources said, though the exact volumes of coking coal mined during the period are not available.
In the financial year 2016-17, BCCL had produced 37 million mt of coking coal.