India should increase the amount of crude oil and coking coal it imports from the United States as a way to diversify its supply under the interim trade deal between New Delhi and Washington, according to the country’s commerce and industry minister.
India is especially keen on importing more high-quality coking coal, used in metallurgy, said Piyush Goyal, as quoted by India’s Telegraph. The top official added India could use more U.S.-made technology components, as well, including graphics processing units for AI, data center equipment, and high-performance computing systems, The Telegraph reported.
India and the United States are still negotiating their trade deal, but progress has been made, mostly after India signaled it was ready to reduce its imports of Russian crude oil, for which President Trump had last year slapped an additional 25% tariff on Indian imports into the United States.
Reports since have indicated that Indian refiners are turning to alternative sources of crude, although formal commitments have been slow to come, with Indian officials focusing on the importance of energy security. The fact that a lot of the trade deal has focused on oil reflects India’s role as one of the largest buyers of Russian crude since 2022, a trade that has reshaped tanker flows and underpinned refinery margins. Washington has increasingly treated that relationship as a political issue rather than a purely commercial one, using trade pressure to push New Delhi toward alternative sourcing.
In coal, India is also a major importer. Last year, the country booked a 9.6% increase in coking coal imports, to 62.6 million tons, to feed its growing steelmaking industry. Imports from the United States have seen marked growth, with American coking coal rising from 7.3% of total imports to 15%, eroding the share of India’s biggest supplier of coking coal – Australia.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
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