India’s coking coal import dependence on Australia falls to 54%

India’s dependence on Australia for coking coal imports fell to 54% in 2025 from 73% in 2019, according to a deposition by the steel ministry to a parliamentary standing committee. About 90% of India’s coking coal requirement, a key raw material for steelmaking via the BF-BOF route, is met through imports because India has limited availability of high-quality, low-ash coking coal. Australia remains India’s largest source of coking coal imports, but the share of Russia rose from 0.62% to 8.15%, the US from 8% to 17%, Mozambique from 4% to 7.31% and Indonesia from 2.46% to 4%. India’s steel sector imported 58 Mt of coking coal in FY25, up from 57 Mt in FY24, at a cost of around Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

Under the Aatmanirbhar Coal Mission, the government’s Mission Coking Coal targets 140 Mt of domestic raw coking coal production by 2030 – 105 Mt from Coal India Limited and 35 Mt from private allocations – while aiming to raise the blending ratio of domestic coal in steelmaking from 10% to 30%. Globally, high-quality hard coking coal is concentrated in a few countries, and Australia accounts for more than 50% of internationally traded coking coal owing to its high-quality reserves, stable mining ecosystem and efficient logistics. Source: SMM

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