Thermal coal import through Paradip port rose four fold in December compared with the year ago period due to domestic supply problem and higher demand for low-ash coal.
Total non-coking coal imports in December 2011 stood at 420,459 tonne against only 93,920 tonne imported in the same month in 2010, according to data available from port officials.
“There were problems with supply from Mahanadi Coal Fields (MCL) since September as late monsoon rains affected production. However, productions at MCL mines have gone up recently, and supply situation has become normal from December,” said Arun Bhattoria, a Kolkata-based coal trader.
The December imports went up because of increased overseas buying orders in previous months as industries ran out of stock because of limited supply, he added.
MCL, a subsidiary of Coal India Limited (CIL) has about half a dozen coal mines and produces nearly 80 million tonne coal a year from mines located in central and western Orissa.
Besides late monsoon rains, protest by local villagers also affected transportation of MCL coal, which feeds number of thermal power stations in and outside Orissa and several metal industries.
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National Aluminium Company (Nalco), which has coal linkages with MCL, has started buying coal from Indonesia to run its captive power plants, while others having similar agreements have either downsized production or increased imports.
Traders and industry sources attributed the increased imports to higher demand for low-ash content coal from South Africa.
As domestic supply dipped from MCL in October-December quarter, the industries increased mixing of imported coal to average the production, they said.
High ash presence in Indian coal makes it less efficient to produce energy. Indian thermal power stations therefore, blend high quality imported coal with domestic coal to increase thermal productivity.
Among other shipments, imports of coking coal through Paradip declined by a third to 392,162 tonne on year in December due to costlier dollar.
Meanwhile, iron ore exports through the only major port in state, which had hit all-time low in November and slipped to just 173,000 tonnes, improved to 454,654 tonne.
However, the exports were 75 per cent lower than the amount shipped in December 2010, sources said.