The Indian Railways carried 437.97 million mt coal during April 2016-January 2017, down 4.4% from a year ago, data released by the Directorate of Statistics and Economics on Wednesday showed.
The total volume of coal transported by the Indian Railways during the first 10 months of fiscal 2016-2017, April-March, 374.19 million mt comprised domestic coal while rest was imported.
Domestic coal to thermal power plants fell by 15.28 million mt to 274.66 million mt over April-January, while imported volumes stood at 6.01 million mt down 13.28 million mt year on year, the data showed.
Coal accounts for around 50% of the overall freight traffic by rail. The fall in coal volumes carried by the Indian Railways was due lower demand for power generation and high stocks at the plants, market sources said. Also, due to rationalization of coal linkages, power generation companies are now getting material from mines nearer to their plants, they said.
Also, coal imports are on a downtrend due to higher domestic output. The power sector imported about 54.46 million mt of thermal coal during April 2016-January 2017, down 20.5% year on year, according to latest data from India's Central Electricity Authority.
Meanwhile, the data from the Directorate of Statistics and Economics showed that domestic coal delivered to steel plants rose by 210,000 mt in the 10-month period to 15.26 million mt. However, imported coal volumes fell by 4.74 million mt to 24.55 million mt in the period.
Domestic coal transported to other consumers were up 8.29 million mt to 83.25 million mt on year while imported coal volumes jumped by 4.36 million mt to 33.22 million mt.
Revenue from coal transportation was Rupees 42.94 billion ($650 million), down from Rupees 43.33 billion a year ago.
