Rise in coal production can reduce India’s import bill
Increase in domestic production and sharp fall in global prices can help India to reduce its coal import bill this year. In June, the country imported 20.18 million tonnes of coal, almost equal to the shipment quantity of the same month last year, a report said citing a data collected by a private agency. During the last fiscal, the import of coal including coke and briquettes was worth $17.47 billion, which was 6.5% more than $16.47 billion imported a year ago, according to the government data. However in March this year, the import value of the commodity fell marginally to $1.50 billion from $1.57 billion recorded in the corresponding month of the previous year. Decline in import value is considered as an impact of falling global prices of coal in the past few months. The price of coal in the international market has come down to the range of $45-50 per tonne from around $100 in the past two years. On the other hand, experts say that the import of coal is expected to increase volume-wise in the coming months. Despite increased production capacity by Coal India Limited (CIL), thermal power plants located in coastal areas find imported fuel more cost-effective. Apart from the price of coal, the transportation of coal from production unit to power plants adds to the procurement cost for the power generation units. But thermal plants in coastal areas have to pay less on transportation in case of imported fuel. More than 80% of coal requirement of all thermal power plants across the country is met from CIL. The public sector unit said in its annual report for 2014-15 that coal supplies to power plants have increased by 8.6% year-on-year. CIL also increased its coal production capacity by 7% and produced around 500 million tonnes of fuel in the last financial year. During the first quarter of 2015-16, the company saw an increase of 12% in its production of coal. CIL has the target of 1 billion tonnes of coal production by 2020. India, the third largest importer of coal after China and the US, aims to stop importing the fuel for electricity generation by 2020.
July 3, 2015 | 5:27 pm IST.
to success.