India’s coal production jumped by 14.5% from a year earlier to 84.63 million tons in June, provisional government figures showed, as the world’s second-largest coal consumer presses ahead with a plan to boost domestic thermal coal output.
Last month, Coal India Ltd – which accounts for about 80% of all coal production in the country – saw its output rise to 63.10 million tons, up by 8.9% compared to June 2023.
In addition, Indian companies and thermal power plants raised the volumes of coal stocks they held in June 2024, by 42% and 30% from June 2023, respectively.
India’s Ministry of Coal said last week that the country saw a record decline in the share of imported coal in the past decade, noting that “medium and low-grade thermal coal are abundantly available domestically, making it imperative for the country to sufficiently produce to fulfill domestic demand.”
Last month, India’s Minister of Coal and Mines, G. Kishan Reddy, said that India plans to increase its domestic coal production and reduce imports.
Earlier this year, Rajat Handa, vice president of international trade at Agarwal Coal, told Reuters that India’s coal imports “are not going to be higher than 160 million tons” in 2024.
Many coal users that previously imported coal have started to switch to domestic supply, Handa said.
As a result, Indian coal industry officials expect the country’s imports of thermal coal – the one used for power generation – to drop in 2024 for the first time since the start of COVID-19, due to rising domestic coal production and record-high levels of inventories.
In the 2023-2024 fiscal year ending March 2024, India’s total coal production rose by 11.65% to 997.25 million tons, according to data from the Ministry of Coal.
More coal-fired units were fired up at the start of this year in the country, amid a prolonged heatwave with above-normal temperatures which pushed electricity consumption higher. Power demand continued to rise with the expanding economic growth, too.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
