India's thermal coal imports rose 27.6% from March to 16.2 million tonnes in April, showed data from CoalMint.

The rise in imports is mainly ascribed to large restocking demand from India before the monsoon season. Generally, Indian buyers prefer stocking up during the summer months of April and May.

However, the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic in India hit domestic economic activities hard. Escalated freight rates and increased South African coal prices made some Indian buyers switch to domestic coal sources.

Data showed India imported most thermal coal of 9.6 million tonnes from Indonesia in April, higher than 7.07 million tonnes in March; imports from South Africa totaled 2.7 million tonnes, up from 2.6 million tonnes in March, and that from Australia rose 17% month on month to 1.5 million tonnes.

The country's thermal coal imports were as per the sector-wise demand in April. Its power consumption surged 41% year on year to 119.26 TWh in April, while recovery in industrial and commercial demand for electricity also supported the rise in Indonesian coal imports.

But thermal coal imports are expected to be under pressure in May due to surging COVID-19 infections in India and slowed economic activities. Buyer accordingly adopted a wait-and-see stance against the rising seaborne coal offers and skyrocketing shipping rates.

(Writing by Rebecca Liu  Editing by Emma Yang)
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