Coronavirus outbreak: Coal import declines 14 pc to 17 MT in Feb
The country's coal imports in February last year stood at 19.82 MT, according to a provisional compilation by mjunction services, based on monitoring of vessels' positions and data received from shipping companies.
mjunction -- a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL -- is a B2B e-commerce company which also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals.
"In line with expectations, coal import volumes staged a decline during the month of February due to increased domestic availability, volatility in non-coking coal prices as well as uncertainty arising from...coronavirus epidemic," mjunction MD and CEO Vinaya Varma said.
"Going forward, prices may see a downward bias, while demand for import may remain subdued, for much the same reason," Varma added.
Of the total imports in February 2020, non-coking coal was at 12.25 MT, against 12.38 MT imported in January 2020. Coking coal imports were at 3.15 MT in February 2020, down from 3.95 MT imported a month ago.
However, the country's coal imports registered an increase of 3.7 per cent to 221.56 million tonnes in April-February period of the ongoing fiscal.
India had imported 213.63 MT of coal in the year-ago period, according to the report by mjunction services.
During April-February 2019-20, non-coking coal imports stood at 152.9 MT, slightly higher than 150.11 MT imported during the same period last year.
Coking coal imports were at 44.3 MT during April-February 2019-20, as against 44.19 MT imported during the same period a year ago. SID ABM