India's coal import declines about 4% to 19 mn tonnes in July

India's coal import declined by 3.7 percent to 18.93 million tonnes (MT) in July this year from 19.67 MT in the same month a year ago. Of the total coal imports in July 2019, non-coking coal shipment was at 12.66 MT, coking coal's was at 4.17 MT, among others, according to a provisional compilation by mjunction services based on monitoring of vessels' positions and data received from shipping companies.

"Against a modest increase in import in June, volumes during July dropped because of softer demand for power during monsoon with thermal power generation falling 7.2 percent during the month," mjunction managing director and CEO Vinaya Varma said. However, with a fall in coal stock at power stations during July and August, imports may firm up in coming days, Varma said.

During the April-July period of the ongoing fiscal, the import of thermal coal was up 13.4 percent to 60.97 MT, against 53.76 MT reported for the same period last fiscal. For coking coal, the volume imported during April-July of FY'20 was 17.73 MT, slightly higher than 17.25 MT imported during the corresponding period last financial year. mjunction -- a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL -- is a B2B e-commerce company and also publishes research reports on coal and steel verticals.