India’s coal imports fell by 9.2% in the period April 2024 – February 2025 from a year earlier as domestic production rose by more than 5%, data from the Indian Ministry of Coal showed on Wednesday.
Imports of all types of coal fell to 220.3 million tons in the 11 months to February 2025—the first 11 months of the Indian fiscal year ending March 2025.
The lower coal imports saved India nearly $6.93 billion, according to the coal ministry.
At the same time, India’s coal production increased by 5.45% during the period, to 929 million tons.
India’s push to boost domestic coal production and reduce reliance on imported coal was the key driver of the decline in recent months.
India cut its imports in 2024 as it began to boost its domestic supply of coal.
While coal is abundant in domestic mines, it is typically of lower quality and contains lower levels of energy when burned compared to most imports.
In India, coal-fired power generation and emissions jumped to a record in 2024 amid soaring electricity demand and the use of more volumes of coal mined domestically rather than imported from overseas.
India’s annual installations of new coal-fired power capacity hit 4 gigawatts (GW) in 2024, flat on the five-year high of 2023 and the highest level since 2019, according to official government figures.
India plans to add as much as 90 GW of coal capacity by 2032 as it looks to meet its surging power demand with reliable baseload electricity.
India is the second-largest coal consumer of coal in the world and a sizeable producer as it seeks to meet more of its demand for the energy commodity with domestic production, while demand keeps growing.
Despite booming renewable capacity additions, India continues to rely on coal to meet most of its power demand as authorities also look to avoid blackouts during severe heat waves.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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