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Indian coking coal demand to gallop by over 40% by 2015

Indian steel industry in its quest for capacity addition is likely catapult coking coal demand by astounding 40% in the next couple of years. Driven by culmination of abundant brownfield projects the crude steel production in India is likely to touch 95 million tonne by 2015-16.

India currently imports about 28 million tonnes of coking coal since the domestic sources are grossly inadequate.  Approximately 0.86 mt of coking coal is required for1 mt of steel production. Accordingly 15 million tonne capacity addition will result in about 13 million tonne of additional demand for coking coal. Since domestic production unlikely to pick up owing to multiplicity of issues bulk of it will be imported.

Going forward in the medium to long term a projection steel production of 135 million tonne by 2020 and 300 million tonne by 2025 (envisaged by the PM ) coking coal requirement will explode with steep hike in import .

Sharing his views on the sidelines of Indian Coal Markets Conference 2013 organized by HIS McCloskey & Metal Junction Mr. V.R.Sharma, Dy MD and CEO Steel Business, JSPL expressed that dependence on coking coal can be curtailed by imbibing new Hydrogen based technology for steel production . He emphasized that Indian steel mills should integrate with technological developments to circumvent dependence on imported fuel.

However Mr. Ashok Kumar, Chief Technology Officer, Process, Tata Steel expressed is reservations about the new technology providing alternative to the traditional production input. He mentioned that since Hydrogen generation ultimately is derived from carbon based compound it will entail environmental issues in the long term. Moreover the generation of hydrogen and its use in steel production has not caught the imagination of steel producers globally owing to cost concerns.

Source: Strategic Research Institute