India’s thermal coal imports may touch a record this year as a faltering monsoon hampers hydro-power generation and pushes steam-driven power plants to replenish stockpiles.
Overseas purchases are estimated to increase to about 145 million metric tons this year from 135 million tons the previous year as prices hover around a five-year low, said Andrew Cosgrove, a Princeton-based analyst at Bloomberg Industries. Mjunction Services Ltd., which auctions the commodity, estimates imports at 152 million tons.
The weakest start to the monsoon in five years is threatening output from hydro-generation plants, adding pressure on coal-fired power to run factories and propel economic growth. After becoming prime minister in May, Narendra Modi told lawmakers his government will work toward providing power, water and sanitation for every household by 2022.
“We’ll see a sharp jump in thermal coal imports from India in the coming months,” Jeffrey Landsberg, managing director at New York-based Commodore Research & Consultancy, said by phone. “The new Indian government is very, very determined to stop large blackouts and that’s the reason we will see electricity demand continuing to rise.”
via Bloomberg
Content is for general information purposes only. It is not investment advice or a solution to buy or sell securities. Opinions are the authors; not necessarily that of OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc. or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries, officers or directors. If you would like to reproduce or redistribute any of the content found on MarketPulse, an award winning forex, commodities and global indices analysis and news site service produced by OANDA Business Information & Services, Inc., please access the RSS feed or contact us at info@marketpulse.com. Visit https://www.marketpulse.com/ to find out more about the beat of the global markets. © 2023 OANDA Business Information & Services Inc.
Alfonso Esparza
trader focused on North America and emerging markets. He has been published by The MarketWatch, Reuters, the Wall Street Journal and The Globe and Mail, and he also appears regularly as a guest commentator on networks including Bloomberg and BNN. He holds a finance degree from the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education (ITESM) and an MBA with a specialization on financial engineering and marketing from the University of Toronto.
Latest posts by Alfonso Esparza (see all)
- Market Rally Still Going Low Holiday Volumes Awaiting Start of 2020 - 27 December 2019
- Market Awaits China Retaliation on Trade - 29 November 2019
- Alibaba to Close Order Book Ahead of Huge IPO - 18 November 2019