India has the bandwidth to substitute about 150 million tonnes of imported coal, Sanjeev Kumar Kassi, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Coal told reporters in response to a query about the country’s import dependency of the carbon compound.

The senior official explained that India imports approximately 250 million tonnes (MT) of coal annually every fiscal year. Of this, 60 MT is coking coal, and 40 MT is utilised by power plants that are designed to function solely with imported coal as the primary input.

Thus, leaving space for about 140 to 150 million tonnes which could be met with domestic production instead of imports.

“The substitutable space with us remains around 140 to 150 million tonnes,” he stated, adding, “For that what we are doing is impressing upon the steel industry also to substitute the [imported] coking coal with our domestic coking coal by stamping charge. We are also asking the steel industry to use more [domestic] coal in the sponge-iron sector.”

Mr. Kassi further stated that imported coal used for blending in power plants has also declined by more than 50% on a year-over-year basis.

“Last year, we used 15.1 million tonnes of [imported] coal for blending in power generation, this year we used 7.3 million tonnes which is almost half,” he observed.

Coal stock with power plants adequate for 24 days

The senior bureaucrat held the coal stock available with power plants, as of Monday, stood at 55.18 million tonnes which would suffice for 24 days of uninterrupted power generation based on observed trends from the last seven days. He added that the stock was being replenished.

“We are producing coal at the pace matching with consumption levels. There is no deficit on daily basis,” he stated.

Additionally, he informed, India has 171.9 million tonnes of coal at its mines and in-transit. This is inclusive of stocks at CIL, SCCL, captive mines, ports and in transit.

Thus, bringing the total coal stock to approximately 227 million tonnes.

Separately, Mr. Kassi held the coal demand by the power sector stood at approximately 906 million tonnes this fiscal year, with requirement for railway rakes being about 480 rakes every day solely for the power sector.

“Normally, the power sector consumes around 2.4 million tonnes per day, and we have proved transport level up to 2.55 million tonnes per day. Thus, we are in comfortable position to produce and transport the coal,” he stated.

Coal India, SCCL have absorbed rise in input prices

The senior official further stated that state-owned Coal India and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) have absorbed the increase in input prices of explosive and diesel, without passing on the impact to consumers by increasing prices of the carbon commodity.

He told reporters that since of the onset of March, prices of ammonium nitrate, which is a key raw material utilised in explosives at coal plants, have increased approximately 43%, consequently, that of explosive have increased 26%.

Further enumerating about the steps taken to ensure affordability, Mr. Kassi held that Coal India did not increase the reserve price of coal at e-auctions, rather decreased it to ensure the affordability is maintained.