India, who is buying huge amount of oil from Russia, has also increased the purchase of Russian coal. In the month of May, India’s Russian coal procurement increased to 13 lakh tonnes, which is the highest level in the last two years. The reason for the increase in the purchase of Russian coal is being told to give Russia to India cheap and good quality coal.
Russian newspaper Kommersant said in a report on Friday that India’s coal purchase from Russia is increasing. The report said that Russia is giving coal to India at relatively affordable rates, which has reduced the share of Russian coal in India’s total coal imports to 7.5%. Indonesia is India’s top coal supplier from which India bought 98 million tonnes of coal in May. India is now increasing the purchase of Russia’s high quality coal.
Citing the data of the consulting service platform bigmint, the report said that India’s total coal imports in May increased by 10% to 1.74 million tonnes, which is the highest since June 2024.
What is the reason for increasing Russian coal procurement?
Nariman Taiketayev, director of the Corporate Ratings Group at National Credit Ratings, told the Russian newspaper that the reason for the increase in coal from Russia is cheaper than the quality of Russian coal and its Indonesian coal.
He said that Russia’s coal suppliers give coal to Indian buyers at relatively low prices and Russia can fulfill India’s future coal needs.
Director of the Russian Price Index Center, Evageni Granchev believes that Russian coal exporters have increased coal exports to India within the boundaries of existing contracts, which has not required any new contract.
He said that with the start of rainy season in India, hydroelectric production will increase there and due to this, the demand for coal will also increase there. India is dependent on coal for its 70% of its power needs and the country produced a record of 1.04 billion tonnes in March. Coal Minister G. Kishan Reddy has said that by 2030 production should reach about 1.53 billion.