Beijing (Energy Publishing) - India is likely to step up its...

Beijing (Energy Publishing) - India is likely to step up its increasing importance in regional thermal coal trade as the country faces a widening gap between domestic supply and demand.

The New Delhi government has revised - upwards by more than 10Mt - the estimated shortfall for the 2009/10 FY, to more than 81Mt.

Based on national planning commission estimates, New Delhi has set a new target for state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) to lift national coal production for 2010/11 by 11.8% to 486.5Mt.

The increasing difficulty has sparked announcem,ents by CIL that it will move more quickly on offshore coal projects - in areas including Mozambique, Australia, Indonesia and the USA.

http://www.coalportal.com/news_details.cfm?type=DailyNews&article_date=2009-11-25%2009:43:56.0&article_headline=Indian%20import%20demand%20to%20grow¤t_row=3