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.

Mexico killings: 12 dead in string of shootings, fuel thieves suspected

Mexican authorities say 12 people have died in the central state of Puebla in a string of shootings being investigated as possible score-settling by rival gangs of fuel thieves.

The state prosecutor's office reports Tuesday that three men and a woman were slain at a hospital in the state capital. Another man was shot dead while driving in the suburb of Chachapa.

And two more were killed while riding in a pickup truck in the municipality of Amozoc de Mota, which contains Chachapa.

In a separate statement late Monday, c prosecutors said gunmen in an SUV shot dead five people who were drinking on a lot around midday in Tlaltenango.

Fuel pipeline theft is a growing problem in Mexico, with regular shootings between gangs and sometimes police or soldiers.
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