India to ramp up coking coal imports from US under bilateral trade deal

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. New Delhi: India is likely to increase imports of coking coal—used mainly in steel and cement production—from the US in a bid to enhance energy partnership, as part of a trade deal between the two countries, said two people aware of the development. India is the largest buyer of US coal globally.

Coking or metallurgical coal accounted for more than 40% of the total 20 million tonnes (mt) of coal imported by India from the US in FY25, according to coal ministry data. India has the fourth-largest coal reserves in the world, but it does not have significant reserves of high-quality coking coal, prompting it to import 85% of its overall requirement. With plans to expand the domestic steel manufacturing capacity, India’s coking coal requirement is set to grow further.

"India is import-dependent for coking coal, and diversification is needed for its sourcing. Imports from the US have been increasing of late and it would increase further. Although thermal coal is also imported from the US, coking coal would get further boost as India is increasing its domestic coal stocks for thermal usage," said the first of the two people cited earlier, both of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity.

With exports of 24.58 mt in FY25, Australia is the largest supplier of coking coal to India, followed by the US, which had supplied 8.48 mt. The other top suppliers include Russia (8.21 mt), Singapore (5.69 mt) and Mozambique (3.43 mt). India's coking coal requirement in FY25 was 87 mt.