India’s Minister of State for Steel & Rural Development Mr Faggan Singh Kulaste has said that India’s development mining & washing technologies for coking coal have not kept pace with the needs of the steel industry and urged that all concerned agencies focus on maximizing domestic production by adopting latest technologies. He stated that the country has a resource of about 34 billion tonnes of coking coal, of which about 18 billion tonnes have already been proven, the development of technology for mining and washing can make the country self-reliant besides ushering in the huge employment opportunities and accelerating the process of development of urban, semi urban and rural areas. Mr Kulaste added that “Though India is producing more than 51 million tonnes of coking coal, its use as washed coking coal by the steel industry is very limited due to low production in existing coal washeries on account of technical constraints due to high ash content and most of the this coking coal is diverted for use by power plants. Since the ash content in coking coal is having a direct impact on the consumption as well as performance of the blast furnace, we need to upgrade the technology.”He further said that in view of low indigenous availability of coking coal, the volume of imports of coking coal will continue to grow as the country's steel production capacity is targeted to reach 300 million tonnes by 2030-31. India imported about 57 million tonnes of coking coal in 2021-22 for meeting needs of BF-BOF segments of steel industry for producing part of 120 million tonnes of steel.
India’s Minister of State for Steel & Rural Development Mr Faggan Singh Kulaste has said that India’s development mining & washing technologies for coking coal have not kept pace with the needs of the steel industry and urged that all concerned agencies focus on maximizing domestic production by adopting latest technologies. He stated that the country has a resource of about 34 billion tonnes of coking coal, of which about 18 billion tonnes have already been proven, the development of technology for mining and washing can make the country self-reliant besides ushering in the huge employment opportunities and accelerating the process of development of urban, semi urban and rural areas. Mr Kulaste added that “Though India is producing more than 51 million tonnes of coking coal, its use as washed coking coal by the steel industry is very limited due to low production in existing coal washeries on account of technical constraints due to high ash content and most of the this coking coal is diverted for use by power plants. Since the ash content in coking coal is having a direct impact on the consumption as well as performance of the blast furnace, we need to upgrade the technology.”He further said that in view of low indigenous availability of coking coal, the volume of imports of coking coal will continue to grow as the country's steel production capacity is targeted to reach 300 million tonnes by 2030-31. India imported about 57 million tonnes of coking coal in 2021-22 for meeting needs of BF-BOF segments of steel industry for producing part of 120 million tonnes of steel.
