By Neha Arora
MUMBAI (Reuters) -India’s coking coal imports will accelerate due to the limited availability of the key steelmaking ingredient amid a ramp-up of steel capacity, the steel secretary said on Friday.
Imports of coking coal will increase to 160 million tons by 2030 from about 58 million tons as of now, Steel Secretary Sandeep Poundrik said.
Coking coal imports dipped 0.7% year-on-year in fiscal year 2025 due to reduced shipments from Australia and the United States even as steel output rose, according to commodities consultancy BigMint.
Earlier this week, Poundrik said India is set to achieve its target of expanding steel production capacity to 300 million tons by 2030.
The country’s steel production stood at 151.1 million tons in fiscal year 2025, with total steelmaking capacity at 200 million tons.
The problem with steel capacity addition in the country lies in logistics, the secretary said on Friday.
The preferred mode of transporting steel, which is in high demand across the country, is railways as it is cheaper than road transport.
Major steel plants being concentrated in the two states of Odisha and Karnataka pose a problem due to the congestion in railways, Poundrik said.
Indian steel majors, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Jindal Steel have plants in Odisha.
(Reporting by Neha Arora in Mumbai and Manvi Pant in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)
