Coal Imports Decline 5.83% in August 2026 to 104.57 MT

India bought less coal from abroad in August 2026 than it did a year earlier. Total imports came to 104.57 million tonnes (MT) against 111.05 MT in August 2025, a fall of 6.48 MT or 5.83 per cent. The Ministry of Coal reads the drop as a result of pushing domestic output higher, keeping supply steady and tightening the chain that moves coal from pithead to plant.

Where the fall came from

Power stations as a group cut their purchases abroad by 6.39 per cent, from 22.77 MT to 21.32 MT. Within that group the two kinds of plant moved in opposite directions. Stations designed to burn imported coal, the imported coal-based or ICB plants, took in slightly more, 18.31 MT against 18.13 MT, a rise of 0.98 per cent, which is in keeping with the fuel they are built for. The sharper change was in coal brought in for blending at domestic coal-based or DCB plants: that fell 35.23 per cent, from 4.64 MT to 3 MT, showing that less foreign coal had to be mixed in because more Indian coal was on hand.

Import share and coking coal

Imported coal met 19.30 per cent of the country's coal consumption in the month, down from 21.20 per cent a year before, a drop of 1.90 percentage points. Coking coal, the grade the steel industry needs, came down 4.18 per cent to 27.30 MT from 28.49 MT. Indian reserves of this grade are limited by quality, so how much is bought abroad still tracks the raw material needs of steel makers.

What the ministry is working on

The Ministry of Coal says its attention is on raising production and offtake, strengthening First Mile Connectivity (FMC), improving the infrastructure that evacuates coal and watching stock levels at thermal stations. It works with the Ministry of Railways, Coal India Limited (CIL) and the subsidiaries of CIL so that supplies reach power utilities on time. The stated aim is to make domestic supply more dependable, avoid imports that need not be made and keep generation uninterrupted, while recognising that ICB plants and the steel sector will keep importing for reasons built into their design and their raw material.