India's coal import rises in Nov, likely to drop in coming months due to increased domestic availability

New Delhi, Jan 4 (PTI) India's coal imports, which jumped 28.1 per cent in November, is expected is see a decline in the coming months on account of increased availability of domestic resources, according to industry data.

Imports in November rose to 25.07 million tonnes (MT) as against 19.57 MT imported in November 2024, according to data compiled by mjunction services ltd, a B2B e-commerce platform and joint venture of SAIL and Tata Steel.

"There was an uptick in volumes in November mainly due to winter restocking by steel mills. Also, some buyers took fresh positions as seaborne prices remained weak. In coming months, however, we expect to see a drop in imports due to increased domestic availability," mjunction MD & CEO Vinaya Varma said.

Of the total imports in November 2025, non-coking coal import stood at 14.28 MT, higher than 12.32 MT imported in November last fiscal year.

Coking coal import stood at 6.51 MT, compared to 4.25 MT recorded for the same month last financial year.

Coal import in the April-November period of the ongoing financial year also increased to 186.16 MT, over 182.02 MT in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.

Even as the government is taking several steps to ramp up domestic output and bring down reliance on imports, the coal output by Coal India Ltd (CIL) dropped 3.7 per cent to 453.5 MT in the April-November period of the current financial year.

Coal India Ltd, which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output, produced 471 MT of fossil fuel in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal year.

The company is targeting a production of 875 MT and an offtake of 900 MT in the 2025-26 financial year.

Coal India Ltd had earlier said it would aspire to reach its production target of 875 MT in the current fiscal year.

In 2024-25, CIL produced 781.1 MT coal, nearly 7 per cent below the company's target for the financial year. CIL's coal production target for FY25 was 838 MT. PTI SID TRB