India’s coking coal imports through all major ports in the country in the April-September period this year totaled 20.891 million mt, down 28 percent from the corresponding period of the previous year, according to data sourced from the Indian Ports Association (IPA), almost four percentage points slower than in the April-August period. This means that imports of coking coal improved in September, reflecting rising crude steel production and consumption in the country. Imports of coking coal reached 4 million mt in September, up from around 3.4 million mt in August, according to SteelOrbis’ calculations.
The IPA data also showed that total iron ore freight, including fines and pellets, handled by all the major Indian ports in the April-September period this year came to 33 million mt, up 33 percent year on year. The pace of growth was six percentage points higher than in the April-August period.