India’s coking coal imports from Russia during the 11 month period of April-February of the fiscal year 2023-24 have been provisionally estimated at 6 million mt, the highest ever, Indian government officials said citing data from the ministry of coal.
The officials said that coking coal imports from Russia have risen by 214 percent over the past two years, with Russia emerging as the third largest supplier of the steelmaking raw material after Australia and the US.
They said that, with Europe halting all imports of coking coal, Russia was offering discounts in the range of 20-30 percent, prompting Indian steel mills to prefer it as a source.
The rising share of Russian coking coal was coming at the expense of the share of Australia in the Indian market. In the April-February period of 2023-24, coking coal imports from Australia were an estimated 31 million mt or about 58 percent of total Indian imports during the period. This compared to Australia accounting for around 68 percent of total coking coal imported during the corresponding 11 month period of the previous fiscal year, the officials said.