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Santanu Sanyal

Kolkata, March 5

If the present trend is any indication, the Steel Authority of India Ltd’s (SAIL) coking coal import in 2008-09 will exceed that in 2007-08. The current fiscal, it is estimated, will end up with a throughput of about 10.5 million tonnes (mt) compared with 9.7 mt in 2007-08.

An estimated of 9.97 mt of coking coal has already been imported so far (April to February) in the current fiscal and the port-wise break-ups are Visakhapatnam 4.27 mt, Haldia 4.32 mt and Paradip 1.38 mt.

The import programme, till the middle of this month, suggests there will be an additional import of 4.37 lakh tonnes but the port-wise distribution of the additional import is yet to be finalised. One thing, however, is certain: It will be a two-port discharge. Visakahapatnam-Haldia, Paradip-Haldia and Visakhapatnam-Paradip, depending on the situation.

The port-wise breakups of SAIL’s coking coal import of 9.7 mt in 2007-08 were Visakhapatnam 4.57 mt, Haldia 4.01 mt and Paradip 1.13 mt.

Inquiries reveal that till September (i.e., first half of 2008-09), the import was up by 36 per cent at 6.10 mt (4.49 mt in the same period of the previous year). However, till January, the growth dropped to 16.8 per cent at 9.47 mt (8.81 mt). This was because the import started declining from October onwards. In February, the import was around five lakh tonnes.

SAIL’s production of hot metal during the period has been on the decline.

Till February, the hot metal production at 13.09 mt (13.68 mt) showed a decline of over four per cent. The trend is likely to persist in March also, it is learnt.

Till the first half (i.e., till September 2008), the drop was marginal at 7.21 mt compared with 7.24 mt in the corresponding period of the previous year.

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