India's coking coal import bill down 39% in three years helped by Russian discounts, low-price global cycle

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New Delhi: India’s coking coal import bill has plunged sharply over the last three years, as the country diversified its imports to Russia and the US, moving away from its top supplier, Australia, according to government data and industry experts. This trend came on the back of a softening of global coal prices.

In fiscal 2026, India imported coking coal worth $11.76 billion, nearly 39% lower than $19.2 billion in FY23. The import diversification started in fiscal 2023 when Russia, which started its war with Ukraine in February 2022, began offering discounts on its coking coal exports.

Coking coal, a high-grade metallurgical coal used to produce coke, the primary reducing agent in blast furnaces, is a critical input for steelmaking.

The value of coking coal imports from Australia has more than halved in the last three years, from $10.63 billion in FY23 to $5.1 billion in FY26, data from the commerce ministry showed. The price erosion in the period is evident from the fact that import volumes in the period from Australia dropped just 9.24% from 30.1 million tonnes in FY23 to 27.31 million tonnes in FY26.

Imports of the commodity from Russia more than doubled from 4.48 million tonnes in FY23 to nine million tonnes in FY26, while in value terms, it increased just 6.25% from $1.15 billion in FY23 to $1.23 billion in FY26—thanks to the attractive discounts offered by the country at war with Ukraine.

Coking coal imports from the US rose more than 36% in the same period to 9.90 million tonnes in FY26.

This change in coking coal sources and value of imports comes at a time that global coal prices have dropped sharply. Benchmark Australian coal fell from $172.8 a metric ton in 2023 to $108.4 each in 2025. The price has recovered some—monthly average for June 2026 was $138.5 per metric ton, World Bank Commodities Price Data showed—but still remains below prices three years ago.

According to data platform Trading Economics, coking coal prices fluctuated between $304.94 per tonne in January 2023 to $232.13 each as of 13 July.

India has the fourth largest coal reserve in the world but much of its coking coal is of inferior quality and needs washing. "The steel industry has tried to balance the blend with lower prime hard coking coal replacing some volume with pulverized coal injections (PCI) and semi-hard coking coals imported mostly from Russia and the US which is cheaper hence overall forex outflow got reduced however volumes increased,” said Kapil Dhagat, chairman of industry lobby Coal Producers Association.

Even after washing, steel plants need imported coking coal for blending to enhance coal parameters and make it suitable for coke making, Dhagat added. Coke is produced by heating coking coal in an oxygen free environment and the efficiency of the process depends on the commodity's ash content, among other factors.

An expert pointed out to the increasing use of puliverized coal as a second reason of the broad shift away to Russian coking coal. “Australia produces the global gold standard for premium hard coking coal. However, Russia is a massive producer of high-quality, low-ash PCI coal,” said Ajay Mathur, professor, School of Public Policy, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

PCI coal is a high-quality, fine coal powder that steelmakers blow directly into the bottom of blast furnaces to replace a large portion of expensive coke (baked coal). This technique lowers steel production costs.

Prices of pulverized coal are generally lower than those of premium coking coal with the difference ranging from 50% to 95% in high-price market cycles and 60-80% in low-price cycles, Australian consulting and research firm Commodity Insights noted last year.

The principal strain point continues to be the shortage of domestically produced, high-quality coking coal in India, said P.K. Singh Rathor, principal general secretary of All India Association...