(FE)
India’s import of non-coking coal used by thermal power stations reduced by 5.04% to 167.10 million tonnes in the financial year 2024-25 against 175.96 million tonnes in FY24, according to the latest data by the coal ministry.
The decline in coal imports can be attributed to an increase in domestic production which crossed 1 billion tonnes touching 1.05 billion tonnes in FY25, compared to 997.83 MT in FY24. The government now intends to reduce its substitutable coal imports to nil by FY26.
The country’s total import of coal including coking coal and other varieties also reduced by almost 2% to 263.56 million tonnes in FY25. India imported 54.08 million tonnes of coking coal, also down by 5.48% than 57.22 million tonnes in FY24.
As per separate data from commerce ministry, the country’s imports of coal, coke & briquettes stood at $31 billion in FY25, down 20% from $38.9 billion in the previous year. In March, the import value of these items stood at $2.25 billion, down 30% on year.
India imports 220 million tonnes of coal every year on an average which includes coking coal and coal required by thermal plants. Of this, 110 million tonnes of coal used in thermal plants is available in the country as reserves and the remaining is imported to meet the requirements of plants that are run especially on imported coal owing to its better quality and low amount of sulphur. The government plans to reduce its import of coal which is available in the country to nil by FY26, the then coal secretary Amrit Lal Meena had told FE.
In March alone, overall coal imports stood at 22.79 million tonnes, down from 23.96 million tonnes in March 2024. Indonesia emerged as the largest supplier of coal to India in March with imports from the country reaching 8.87 million tonnes, followed by South Africa at 25.64 MT and the US at 10.70 MT.
The current coal production by CIL stands at 781.05 million tonnes. Additionally, the production from commercial & captive, and other entities also saw a remarkable surge, reaching 197.50 MT —a 28.11% increase on year. By FY26, the private sector is seen producing 203 million tonnes of coal, official sources have told FE.
The country’s coal production has increased owing to several measures taken by the government to increase domestic availability including auctioning of new mines.
Since the inception of commercial coal mining in 2020, the Ministry of Coal has successfully auctioned a total of 125 coal mines, with a combined production capacity of 273.06 MT per year.
The government has projected coal production to reach 1.13 billion tonnes in the upcoming financial year 2025-26, according to the sources.
Once the government has achieved its target of nil coal imports, it aims to enter into the coal gasification segment which can help in reduction of imports of ethanol, methanol, di-methyl ether, ammonium nitrate, it had earlier said. These components are byproducts of coal gasification. The government has thus set up a target to gasify 100 million tonnes of coal by FY30.
In a further move to reduce import dependency for coal, the power ministry is also exploring the option of equipping thermal plants run on fuel from abroad to use certain quantities of domestic fuel also.
