Coal news and updates

India’s imported coal stocks at 8 ports up 6.1% w-o-w

July 9: India's imported coal stocks at 8 ports – seven major and one private –provisionally increased 6.1% to 5.549 million tons (mt) as on July 4, 2014 compared to a volume of 5.230 mt as on June 27, according to provisional data available with ICMW.

The overall inventories of imported coal at Indian ports during the week ended July 4 rose mainly on account of higher inventories at five major ports – V O Chidambaram, New Mangalore, Mumbai, Kolkata and Paradip and one private port- Mundra, compared to the previous week (ended June 27), data revealed.

During the week ended July 4, imported coal stocks at the port of Paradip rose 4.73% to 1.459 mt, against a volume of 1.393 mt recorded on June 27. Of the total imported coal stocks at the port as on July 4, stocks of steam coal stood at 0.769 mt, slightly up from that of  0.760 mt on June 27 while coking coal stocks at the port during the week under review stood at 0.690 mt, up nearly 10% from 0.630 mt recorded in June 27.

At Mundra Port, stocks of imported coal rose nearly 6% to 1.100 mt on July 4 compared to 1.030 mt on June 27, data revealed. Of the total stocks as on July 4, the port’s stocks of steam coal stood at 1 mt, up from 0.90 mt on June 27. Imported coking coal stocks at the port fell by 23.07% to 0.10 mt on July 4 compared to 0.13 mt in the week before.

Inventories of imported coal at the port of Kolkata too rose by nearly 16% to 0.424 mt in the week under review against a volume of 0.364 mt on June 27. On July 4, the port’s steam coal inventory rose slightly to 0.188 mt compared to a volume of 0.185 mt on June 27 while the inventories of coking coal at the port rose nearly 32% to 0.236 mt against a volume of 0.179 mt recorded on June 27.

The following table gives break-up of port-wise imported coal stocks as on May 23, May 31, June 6, June 13, June 20 June 27 and July 4 (in million tons):

*Coal stocks as on July 7, 2014