February 14, 2019 - Indian coking coal imports climbed higher in December as shipments to India from Canada and Mozambique ramped up.

Indian coking coal imports in December rose by 16pc from the previous month to 3.43mn t, according to data from e-commerce company Mjunction. Total coking coal imports in the first nine months of fiscal year 2018-19 beginning in April was 30.02mn t.

Australia remained the largest exporter of coking coal to India in December with 2.42mn t, down by 18.1pc from November. But Indian imports from Canada more than doubled month on month to 402,729t in December.

India imported 250,663t of coking coal from Mozambique in December, up by 38.84pc from November, while December volumes from the US fell by 59.8pc from the previous month to 91,686t.

Indian imports of Indonesian coking coal shot up to 202,063t in December from 41,900t in November, the largest monthly volume from that country in the April-December period.

India's December imports of pulverised injection coal (PCI) rose by 92.79pc month on month to 648,511t. Total PCI imports in the first nine months of fiscal year 2018-19 beginning in April was 5.04mn t.

December PCI shipments from Australia increased by 150.8pc from November to 460,487t, while India imported 155,355t of PCI from Russia, a slight increase of 1.7pc from the previous month.

India imported 438,766t of metallurgical coke in December, up by 42.4pc from November. December met coke volumes from top supplier China increased by 30pc month on month, while India imported 67,461t from Poland in December after not receiving any Polish met coke in the previous month.

Indian met coke imports in December also included 50,197t from Japan, 33,155t from Colombia, 32,654t from Australia and 30,970t from Russia.

The Argus price assessment for premium hard low-volatile coking coal on a fob Australia basis averaged $224.78/t in December and $207.42/t for calendar 2018.