October 12, 2008

SAIL firming up coking coal import plans for 2008-09

BL reported that Steel Authority of India Limited has proposed to import an estimated 12.5 million tonnes of coal in the current fiscal as compared to 9.7 million tonnes in 2007-08. But the distribution of the projected import among the 3 east coast ports namely Haldia, Paradip and Visakhapatnam, is yet to be finalized.

For 2007-08, SAIL initially had set the coal import target at 13 million tonnes to be divided among the 3 ports in the following proportions
Haldia – 6 million tonnes
Visakhapatnam – 5 million tonnes
Paradip – 2 million tonnes

Subsequently, the target was revised downwards in view of the uncertainty over coal availability in the international market, particularly the problems at the loading ports in Australia. The revised target was set at 10.26 to be divided among the 3 ports in the proportions of
Visakhapatnam – 4.32 million tonnes
Haldia – 4.66 million tonnes
Paradip – 1.28 million tonnes

However, the year ended with a total import of 9.7 million tonnes and the distribution among 3 ports was
Visakhapatnam – 4.03 million tonnes
Haldia – 4.59 million tonnes
Paradip – 1.08 million tonnes