Slide in coal volumes pulls down cargo volumes to 0.4% at major ports
A fall of 9.5 per cent in coal volumes contained the cargo growth of major ports to 0.4 per cent during April-October period of this fiscal. In contrast, coal volumes grew by 11 per cent in FY19.
Apart from the slump in coal imports, despatches by Coal India Ltd (CIL) fell by 7 per cent in the period to 364 million tonnes (mt) from 392 mt in the corresponding period of the last fiscal. A report by ICRA attributes the slowdown in coal imports to the economic slowdown in recent months that has slackened overall demand.
Power demand and consequently thermal power generation has witnessed a decline in the last three to four months along with an attendant slowdown in other consuming industries, resulting in fall in coal demand-supply gap. In addition to weakening power demand, growth in coal demand is also stifled by impact of higher generation from renewable capacities.
