Context: India plans to form a consortium of state-owned companies to facilitate coking coal imports to help domestic steel companies tide over shortages.
Coking Coal
- Coking coal (or metallurgical coal) is a bituminous coal with a suitable quality that allows the production of metallurgical coke, or simply named coke.
- Coking coal has a higher carbon content than steam coal, as well as a lower level of sulphur, phosphorous and alkalis (World Coal Institute 2009).
- Coke is the main product of the high-temperature carbonisation of coking coal.
- Coke is an essential input material in steelmaking as it is used to produce pig iron in blast furnaces acting as the reducing agent of iron ore and as the support of the furnace charge.
- By-products of coke production such as tar, benzole, ammonia sulphate and sulphur are used for the manufacture of chemicals, as well as coke oven gas used for heat and power generation.
- 70% of the steel produced today uses coal.
- Around 0.6 tonnes (600 kg) of coke produces 1 tonne (1000 kg) of steel, which means that around 770 kg of coal are used to produce 1 tonne of steel through this production route.
Coking Coal Mission
- The Coal Ministry launched Mission Coking Coal to address the growing domestic demand for coking coal as projected in the National Steel Policy 2017.
- The mission envisions significantly reducing coking coal imports through a transformative measure under the Aatmnirbhar Bharat initiative.
- These measures encompass exploration, enhanced production, technological adoption, private sector involvement in coking coal blocks, the establishment of new washeries, increased research and development activities, and quality enhancement.
The mission has been launched to enhance production of coking coal with the following objectives:
- Enhancing coking coal production from 52 million Tonne (MT) in FY 2022 to 140 MT in FY 2030.
- Enhancing coking coal washing capacity from 23 MT in FY 2022 to 61 MT in FY 2023.
Imports of Coking Coal
- The import of coking coal rose 5.44 per cent to 54.46 MT over 51.65 MT in FY22.
- Australia remains the leading coking coal supplier to India.
Production of Coking Coal
