The Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has virtually stopped importing coking coal. Only one vessel, carrying about 20,000 tonnes, has called at Haldia and none at either Paradip or Visakhapatnam so far this month. Inquiries reveal that two vessels, one carrying around 70,000 tonnes and the other about 40,000 tonnes, are likely to call at Visakhapatnam and Paradip respectively towards the end of the month. The vessel due to call at Visakhapatnam might also call at Haldia for part discharge of the consignment as part of the two-port unloading operation.
In December last, SAIL imported an estimated 830,000 tonnes of coking coal through these three ports – 330,000 tonnes through Visakhapatnam, 290,000 tonnes through Haldia and 210,000 tonnes through Paradip and in November 970,000 tonnes – 440,000 tonnes through Visakhapatnam, 430,000 tonnes through Haldia and 100,000 tonnes through Paradip.
The indication is that SAIL’s total import of coking coal this fiscal year will be less than the targeted 13/14 million tonnes (mt). In 2007-08, total import was 10 mt and until December it was apparently around 9.4 mt. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL), which normally imports about three million tonnes annually, might end up with 2.4/2.5 mt. Interestingly, despite the drop in imports, dispatches from the ports to the plants did not decline significantly as there were enough stocks at port level. As on January 1, 2009, three ports held a stock over about 981,000 tonnes on SAIL's account – Visakhapatnam (487,000 tonnes), Haldia (304,000 tonnes) and Paradip (190,000 tonnes).
Meanwhile, there are reports that a committee of representatives of SAIL and RINL is re-negotiating coking coal import prices with Australian suppliers in Delhi and insisting on cutback in prices.
The Delhi initiative, it is felt, can hope to succeed only if China and Japan, currently also renegotiating the prices, succeed in their efforts.
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