By Sudarshan Varadhan

KOLKATA (Reuters) – India’s thermal coal imports fell to their lowest in 9 months during November, data from consultancy Coalmint showed, mainly due to a rise in domestic coal production.

The country imported 10.83 million tonnes of thermal coal in November, according to Coalmint data, compared with 12.03 million tonnes in October and 9.45 million tonnes in November 2021.

Imports fell mainly due to increased production by state-owned Coal India, which accounts for 80% of India’s coal production.

The world’s largest coal miner saw production increase by a sixth to 412.6 million tons in the first eight months of this financial year, meeting its annual production target for the first time since at least 2010.

November’s lower power generation fuel shipments marked the fifth straight month in which imports fell from the previous month, data showed.

Imports of coking coal — used primarily in steelmaking — fell to 4.56 million tonnes, from 4.95 million tonnes in October and 5.3 million tonnes in November 2021.

India is the world’s second largest importer, consumer and producer of coal, and India, Australia, South Africa, Russia and the United States are among its main suppliers.

Overall imports of coal and coke products – metacoke and petroleum coke – rose 8.5% to 17.87 million tons, according to Coalmint data.

The share of coal and coke imports from Indonesia and Russia has increased at the expense of Australia and South Africa. Russia and the United States were the only countries whose overall shipments increased, according to the data.