India Coal Imports May Fall.

NEW DELHI -- India's coal imports may fall this financial year after extreme weather conditions in main producing countries pushed up global prices, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal said Thursday.

International coal prices have surged in recent months because of heavy floods in Australia's Queensland region that have disrupted mining activities at a time when demand from Asian importers such as China and India remains strong. India imported 44.28 million tons of thermal coal and 23.46 million tons of coking coal in the last financial year that ended March 31, 2010.

The South Asian nation is likely to face a shortage of 83 million tons this financial year as local output of 573.42 million tons lags demand of 656.31 million tons. Lower-than-estimated imports could hurt electricity generation while surging prices may hurt earnings at cement, power and steel companies.

The power ministry had fixed an import target of 35 million tons of coal this financial year. The utilities imported 16.12 million tons until December-end, the Central Electricity Authority's website showed.

The agency said generation at coal-based power plants rose 3% from a year earlier in the April-December period to 387.91 gigawatt-hours, but missed the government's target of 406.51 gigawatt-hours mainly due to coal shortages.

According to the globalCoal website, the price of thermal coal rose to $136.30 a ton at Australia's Newcastle port for the week ending Jan. 14, from $129.90 a ton the previous week.

Mumbai-based Kotak Securities Ltd. said in a Jan. 11 note that the price of Australian coking coal has surged 32% year-on-year to $230 a ton.

Australia supplies two-thirds of the global market in the premium hard coking coal used in blast furnaces, and the Newcastle port is the world's biggest thermal coal export terminal.

Minister Jaiswal also said the ministry may consider raising domestic coal prices after July.

"Coal India Ltd. is due to finalize its next wage revision by then. So the quantum of the rise will be dependent on the burden of the wage revision on the company," he said.

State-run Coal India, which accounts for more than four-fifths of local production, is free to fix coal prices but in consultation with the government.

Source : online.wsj.com