Higher domestic coal production leads to fall in import in first 10 months of FY24, compared to previous year

Higher domestic coal production has led to a reduction of 36.69% in the volume of coal imported for blending by thermal power plants, amounting to 19.36 million tons (MT) from April 2023 to January 2024, compared to the same period of the previous year.

A reduction has also been noted in the share of coal import in proportion to India's total coal consumption. The share of coal import declined to 21% during April 2023 to January 2024, compared to 22.48% during the corresponding period of the previous year.

Conversely, there has been a notable increase of 94.21% in coal imports by imported coal-based power plants during April 2023 to January 2024, compared to the same period in the previous year. Explaining the reason behind this contrast, the Coal Ministry pointed that many of these power plants are designed in a manner that they can only use imported coal, while it attributed the growth in such imports to a substantial decline in prices of imported coal during this period.