Coal demand in India increased significantly in the first half of the year

On October 23, the Indian Coal Ministry official stated that India's imports of thermal coal and coking coal from January to September totaled 63.98 million tons, an increase of 18% year-on-year, due to the inability of India's coal production to meet growing demand.

According to data provided by the Ministry’s officials on Tuesday, India’s import of thermal coal and coking coal increased by 18% to 63.98 million tons during the April-September period, while India imported 102.853 million tons of thermal coal and coking coal in the 2011/12 fiscal year, compared with the previous year. Jumped by nearly 50%; among them, thermal coal imports were 71.052 million tons, and coking coal imports were 31.801 million tons.

The Indian Ministry of Coal expects that India will produce 574.4 million tons of coal in fiscal year 2012/13 (end of March 2013), an increase of 6.4% from the previous fiscal year. But still unable to meet domestic demand, although India's economy has slowed down, in the 2012/13 fiscal year, India's domestic coal supply and demand gap is expected to be around 192 million tons. Some suppliers and end users stated that India will import 100 million tons of thermal coal this fiscal year.