India plans to replace imports with 135 million tons of domestic coal

Recently, pralhad Josh, India's coal minister, said that India's domestic coal industry is continuing to reform, hoping that power coal can meet the country's growing energy demand and replace imported coal with domestic coal. At a cabinet briefing, Indian coal minister Josh discussed the ambitious production targets of state-owned Indian coal companies, as well as recent initiatives to allow the Indian coal industry to introduce foreign direct investment (FDI) for the first time. Josh called the move a "historic decision," saying it would increase coal production and significantly reduce coal imports over time. Josh said India's coal industry plan aims to reduce its dependence on imported coal, with only 100 million tons of coal imported by India being "irreplaceable". India is the second largest coal importer in the world, second only to China. In recent years, as China's import demand seems to have peaked, India's imports have started to grow strongly. Therefore, Indian coal import plays an increasingly important role in the global maritime market. This policy means that Indian coal companies will face a lot of work to achieve the target of 1 billion tons of coal production by 2023-24 fiscal year. S & P's energy analysts do not expect a significant increase in India's coal production in 2020. Data show that in December last year, the Indian government auctioned four coal mines to cement, sponge iron and power producers, with a total capacity of 4.8 million tons. However, this increase will not have any substantial impact on India's power coal imports.