Coal news and updates

India’s Feb coal imports from SA up 22% m-o-m

March 17: Taking a cue from the soft price trend in January, Indian companies’ coal imports from Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) in South Africa jumped 22.41% in February to 2,655,930 tons from 2,169,615 tons in January, according to data available with ICMW.

Imports in February this year were nearly 80% higher compared to only 1,482,153 tons in February 2014.

With the imports in February, India’s coal imports from South Africa during the first two months of 2015 stood at 4,825,545 tons, up nearly 79% compared to 2,702,516 tons imported during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

ICMW understands that imports in March would be slightly lower as South African coal prices had firmed up by nearly 10% to $66 per ton from a low of $60 per ton in January.

It has been found that Indian companies tend to buy more coal from South Africa because of consistency in quality whenever prices are down or are around $60 per ton and this year was no exception.

Incidentally, because of a soft trend in South African coal prices, Indian companies had imported a total of 30.172 million tons of coal from the country in 2014, up nearly 46% from 20.68 mt imported in 2013 (January-December).

So far as February is concerned, India accounted for nearly 43% of the total coal exported through the terminal, up sharply from the share of nearly 36% in January.

As far as financial year 2014-15 is concerned, India’s imports during the first 11 months of the fiscal stood at 32.30 million tons, up significantly from total imports of 20.45 mt in 2013-14, 21.16 mt in 2012-13 and 17.35 mt in 2011-12.

In February, a total of 28 vessels had sailed from RBCT for India as against 22 vessels in January and 43 vessels in December.

Of the 28 vessels in February, three (375,468 tons) came to Krishnapatnam Port, three (491,433 tons) to Gangavaram, one vessel each to Jaigarh (77,480 tons), Vizag (55,000 tons), Bedi (158,890 tons), Bhavnagar (66,000 tons), Dahej (82,500 tons), Haji-Bunder (Mumbai) (59,105 tons), Haldia (55,000 tons), Kandla (165,000 tons), New Mangalore (55,000 tons, Pipavav (73,380 tons) and Marmagoa (90,180 tons).

The destination Indian ports of 11 vessels carrying a total of 851,494 tons of coal, was not immediately available.

In January, two vessels (165,000 tons) came to Dahej Port, two (128,204 tons) to Vizag Port and two (245,356 tons) came to Krishnapatnam Port, amongst others.

Following are the details of India's monthly coal imports from RBCT in 2015, 2014 and 2013 (in tons):