India to import 25 million tonnes of coal from South Africa

India will need to import as much as 110 million tonnes of coal per year by 2012, with some 25 million tonnes expected to come from South Africa to feed rising power demand, a consultancy said on Thursday.

South Africa exported 17.7 million tonnes of coal to the Asian country in 2009, and the industry estimates that as much as 75 percent of the country’s exports could go to Asia in the future.

mjunction Services, which counts Tata Steel as a partner, told a McCloskey coal exports conference in Cape Town that power is making up 70 percent of the country’s demand for coal, followed by the steel and cement industry.

Source: Reuters