India’s biggest coal importer, Adani Enterprises Ltd., has agreed to buy thermal coal from Colombia for the first time. A company official said that surging electricity demand meant the company had to diversify its purchases.
The first cargo of fuel – expected to be at least 110,000 deadweight tons – is expected to land at either Mundra or Dahej ports on India’s west coast.
Although neither the source of the coal nor the quantity have been indentified it is known that Cerrejon, the Colombian company that runs the world’s largest open-cast coal mine, has been touting for sales in India after describing prices there as “much better” than those in Europe.
BHP Billiton Ltd., Anglo American Plc and Xstrata Plc each own a third of Cerrejon, which will produce 31 million to 32 million metric tons of coal in 2010. Last year, the mine cut production because of weak demand in Europe and the U.S. Colombian coal accounts for about 10 per cent of global coal trade.
India imported 60 million tons of coal in 2009 – almost double the 2008 figures – and that figure is exported to hit 200 million tons by 2012, according to Macquarie Group. Imports in February were a little more than 6 million tons, up by more than 20 per cent of a year earlier.
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