India’s coking coal import traffic through all its major ports in the April-May period this year was recorded at 7.477 million mt, down 24 percent year on year, according to the data sourced from the Indian Ports Association (IPA).
The fall in imports was despite the fact that Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), wholly-owned operational subsidiary of state-run Coal India Limited (CIL) and the country’s sole supplier of coking coal, reported one of its worst off-takes in May.
According to BCCL officials, the off-take of domestic coking coal in May this year was 1.21 million mt, down 53 percent from the corresponding month of the previous year.
Indian steel mills have reduced their purchases of coking coal due to the slump in crude steel production because of the spread of Covid-19 and the national lockdown. Some major steelmakers were forced to lower their capacity utilization rate to 30 percent in May.
IPA data showed that port traffic of iron ore lumps, fines and pellets (for exports) in the April-May period this year was recorded at 9.14 million mt, up 14 percent year on year.