India’s imports of Russian metallurgical (coking) coal in January-May 2024 amounted to 7.8 million tons, an increase of 13% compared to the same period last year, according to a June review from analytics company Bigmint.
Over the first five months of this year, India imported 31.7 million tons of coking coal (+9%), of which Russia accounted for 25% of the total supply volume. Other major suppliers include Australia (15.8 million tons), the United States (3.6 million tons), and Indonesia (1.5 million tons).
Alexander Kotov, head of consulting at Neft Research, believes that there is still potential to increase exports of Russian coking coal to India. “Over the next five years, India can double its steel production to approximately 300 million tons per year. In addition, the growth of Russian coking coal exports will be supported by an actively discussed intergovernmental agreement between the two countries, which involves increasing the supply of this raw material to 40 million tons per year,” he told the daily Kommersant, reported the TASS press review for June 21.
