Coal imports to rise as India grapples with train shortage, surging demand

Caught between logistical bottlenecks and surging demand from power plants, India will likely increase coal imports in 2018, industry executives said, in what would be a setback to the government’s plans to cut the country’s dependence on foreign supplies.
The projected higher coal demand, which would reverse two years of declines, will be a boon for international miners such as Indonesia’s Adaro Energy, Australia’s Whitehaven Coal or global commodity merchant Glencore.

But, the country’s power plants and cement makers, the source of the resurgent demand, will end up eating the cost of the higher-priced imports.
State-owned Coal India, the world’s second-biggest coal miner by production, is grappling with a shortage of trains to carry the fuel from its mines to the country’s power plants, according to the minutes of government meeting held on a Jan. 22 and reviewed by Reuters.

India’s thermal coal imports may rise as much as 4 percent this year, with a steady 3 percent to 5 percent of growth expected over the next five years, a senior executive at Adani Enterprises, the country’s biggest coal trader, told Reuters.