Coal news and updates

‘India’s coal imports may fall in next 2 quarters’

January 15: India’s coal imports may be at a lower ebb in the current quarter (January-March) and the next quarter (April-June) because of logistics constraints and higher stocks of coal lying at various ports, a Delhi-based coal trader told ICMW.

“It is also possible that the trend might continue for the entire year (2015),” the trader added.

“Logistics constraints have been hampering the growth in imports. There is a pile-up of coal stocks at the ports and the clearance rate is very poor. So this will goad most importers and traders to not get vessels further till the existing inventories are cleared,” he said.

He pointed out that some major companies, which are importing coal on their own instead of routing these through traders, are also facing the inventory pile-up issue.

“Till the time the situation improves, fresh imports during this quarter and the next will be restricted and it will be mostly inventory replacement,” he said.

He added that the risk associated with the volatilities of logistics, currency and crude oil prices, coupled with financing costs and delayed payments by customers, are affecting the margins of traders which are also likely to affect imports in the days to come.