Home / Business and Economy / India Shelves Coal Import Mandate Amid Price Surge
India Shelves Coal Import Mandate Amid Price Surge
19 Oct
Summary
- India decided against forcing coal imports for power plants.
- High thermal coal prices made imported coal unattractive.
- Coal India tasked to boost domestic output and transport.
India has decided to abandon a plan that would have required power plants to import coal to supplement dwindling domestic stockpiles. This decision, reported recently, comes amid concerns over soaring thermal coal prices on the international market, making seaborne shipments prohibitively expensive.
As an alternative to mandated imports, government officials have instead urged Coal India to ramp up its domestic output. Furthermore, the railway network has been instructed to prioritize and facilitate the transportation of coal to power stations across the country. This approach seeks to address the current supply crunch through enhanced domestic production and logistics.
This development follows previous governmental actions, including an order for over 100 captive coal-fired power plants to operate at maximum capacity through the end of the year. These measures are intended to meet an anticipated surge in electricity demand, exacerbated by hotter-than-usual weather patterns linked to El Niño, which have already led many plants to operate with critically low fuel reserves.
