Posted on 10 May 2024
India's rapid emergence as a key steel producer and consumer has sparked discussions on the country's raw material security policies, especially for coking coal.
This was a focal point at this week’s Singapore Coking Coal Conference, attended by Kallanish, particularly in light of India's ambitious goal to achieve a 300 million tonne/year crude steel capacity by 2030.
While India has sufficient reserves of iron ore, it is dependent on imports for 90% of its coking coal requirement.
With a steel capacity target of 300mt and production target of 220mt by 2030, India will continue to rely on imports of coking coal amid unavailability of good quality domestic coal, conference participants highlighted.
“Indian coal has higher ash content. Even after washing it, we don’t get the desired results. We don’t even have the solution to avail good quality domestic coking coal. Thus, despite having domestic coal deposits, we will continue to import the same in the longer run as well,” remarked Ramaswamy Visweswaran, commercial director at Arjas Steel.
Sandeep Kalia from Tata International added: “Even after washing Indian coking coal, the ash content remains high, at 18%, while the desired percentage is around 9-10%. In India, we only have 6-7mt of washed coal. In the next few years, it can be increased to a maximum of 15mt, while our requirement will be much higher than this, making us rely on imports.”
India has been consistently importing about 54-55m t/year of coking coal over the last five years, with Australia being the largest supplier followed by the US and Canada. The country is considering boosting imports from Russia to diversify its coking coal sources.
Source:Kallanish
