In current fiscal year 2013-‘14(FY14), lower rates of coking coal produced 18 pct increase in imports. Indian steel producers imported about 33.1 million tonnes of coking coal during 2013-14.

According to traders and analysts, the coking coal imports by the country took advantage of the price crash. Globally, the average prices dropped from $140 per tonne during previous fiscal to as low as $111- $118 per tonne in FY ’14.

However, all of the imported coke is not used for steel production. Some other plants produce coke in order to sell to other parties. India buys 30 to32 mt of coking coal from Australia annually. The rising coking coal imports also made improvements in India’s crude steel output. Based on the data of world steel organization, due to this high coke imports, steel production rose to 81mt in 2013 from 77.3 mt of 2012.

Coke traders also mentioned that usage of coke to produce hot metal and stockpiling the material by many plants is likely to make later rise in price. When Prices reached around $100 per tonne, the steel plants tried to stockpile the coke so as to meet up future price rise. Thus, normal steel production and rising imports of coking coal implies that the steel units have concern over both inventory and production.

Source:- metal.com