‘Badly hit’ by high costs, Indian metal mills seek to cut coal use
India’s top metal producers are searching for ways to trim their consumption of coal after sky-rocketing prices of the fuel ate into their profits.
Benchmark thermal coal prices have more than doubled in the past year and could surpass October’s record high as deliveries from Indonesia are delayed and a global energy squeeze continues. Coking coal, a key raw material in the steelmaking process, has risen by nearly a third in Dalian in the same period.
India’s biggest steelmaker by value, JSW Steel Ltd., missed profit estimates for the previous quarter after expenses surged 77 per cent from a year earlier mainly due to higher power and coal prices.
