New Delhi (Platts)--5Feb2013/536 am EST/1036 GMT
India has total coking coal reserves of around 33.7 billion mt to support its burgeoning domestic steel industry, but needs to focus on exploiting this reserve, R P Ritolia, adviser of coal to Tata Steel, said Tuesday at the eighth Global Steel conference in New Delhi. "It is not coking coal which is scarce ... it is the will power to exploit this material that is lacking," Ritolia said. "There is much reserve [that] can be tapped to support the Indian steel industry," he added. Ritolia said that India's total coking coal reserves amount to 33.7 billion mt, of which 13.9 billion mt was within easy reach through open cast mining. But domestic coking coal production has stagnated, with production hovering at around mid-6 million mt/year over 2010-2012, he added. Credit Suisse in a report estimated India's imports of coking coal in 2012 to be around 35 million mt in 2012. Article continues below...Request a free trial of: Steel Markets DailySteel Markets Daily provides transparent daily and weekly assessments of iron ore, coking coal, coke, ferrous scrap and ferroalloys prices, plus insightful analysis and commentary on the day's market activities.
India has total coking coal reserves of around 33.7 billion mt to support its burgeoning domestic steel industry, but needs to focus on exploiting this reserve, R P Ritolia, adviser of coal to Tata Steel, said Tuesday at the eighth Global Steel conference in New Delhi. "It is not coking coal which is scarce ... it is the will power to exploit this material that is lacking," Ritolia said. "There is much reserve [that] can be tapped to support the Indian steel industry," he added. Ritolia said that India's total coking coal reserves amount to 33.7 billion mt, of which 13.9 billion mt was within easy reach through open cast mining. But domestic coking coal production has stagnated, with production hovering at around mid-6 million mt/year over 2010-2012, he added. Credit Suisse in a report estimated India's imports of coking coal in 2012 to be around 35 million mt in 2012.
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"There is no focus on coking coal," Ritolia said, adding that most of the coal mined in the country was "being diverted to thermal power plants." Logistical constraints also limited availability in the country, he said. Ritolia suggested the creation of companies -- which could be joint ventures with the state -- to focus specifically on coking coal mining and forming a single agency to facilitate mining permits for coking coal projects. He also suggested developing technology to facilitate improving inferior grade coking coal. Coal produced in India due to its inferior quality is not suitable for modern steel mills, Amit Chatterjee, a former adviser to Tata Steel, said. "To think that Indian coking coal can be used in our blast furnaces, it will take us back to the 1960s," Chatterjee said. "India's coking coal's detriment is not in its ash but its rank," he added. High-rank coking coal is prized because it has higher carbon content and less moisture and volatile matter, making it suitable steel-making, he said. Ash content in washed Indian coal is at 17-18%, which is comparatively higher than the 10% ash content found in Australian or Canadian material, he said.--Edwin Yeo, edwin_yeo@platts.com--Edited by Haripriya Banerjee, haripriya_banerjee@platts.com
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