Govt working to increase domestic coking coal output: Steel secretary

The government is working to increase the domestic production of coking coal as the country aims to have a steel making capacity of 300 million tonne by 2030-31, a senior official said on Thursday.

Coking coal is a key input in steel making and the country remains dependent on imports to meet 85 per cent of its coking coal needs.

The government has taken an important decision by removing the duty on coking coal to zero, Steel Secretary Sanjay Kumar Singh said.

"There have been issues of prices rise in this area (coking coal) but of late, they have come down quite significantly. Of course, ultimately what is going to be the full solution is that when the production of coking coal to our requirement is done within the country and Ministry of Coal is working for that," he told PTI.

He was speaking on the sidelines of the 'Indian Steel Markets Conference' organised by e-marketplace mjunction.

Recently, Union Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste said there was a need for investments in coking coal mining to make the steel industry self-reliant.

India imported 57 million tonnes of coking coal in FY22 to produce 120 MT crude steel.