NEW DELHI | March 01, 2016: Coal imports will remain strong over the coming quarters despite rise in domestic production, says a research report.

"Coal imports will remain strong over the coming quarters as India will continue to be unable to meet domestic coal consumption," the report by Fitch Group firm BMI Research has said.

Even though domestic coal production is rising faster than domestic consumption, due to lack of transport infrastructure and low coal prices, seaborne coal demand from power plants along the coast will remain strong, it said.

Due to new capacity additions, coal consumption in the country remains higher than production, with a structural deficit of 187 million tonnes in 2015.

"Over the long term, as India attempts to hit its ambitious plans of doubling production by 2020 and production from its auctioned coal mines finally come online, we expect imports to fall," it said.

For instance, during the first eight months of 2015, India's thermal coal imports grew by 27.7 per cent y-o-y. Meanwhile, coking coal imports grew by 17.3 per cent during the first eight months of 2015, it said.

However, Coal Secretary Anil Swarup had earlier said that coal import had come down to 148.86 MT during April-January FY2015-16 from 177.96 MT in the same period of previous fiscal.

(Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/)