India could become the biggest importer of thermal coal, analysts claim.
Coal imports could be higher than China’s by 2017 or sooner, Bloomberg Intelligent analysts William Foles and Andrew Cosgrove’s said.
China, the world’s biggest energy consumer, is cutting down on coal to fight pollution.
However India has planned to increase its generating capacity by 60% (204GW) by 2019 according to the analysts’ report.
Mr Foles and Mr Cosgrove said: “India will have the largest impact on seaborne thermal coal markets as lofty domestic production targets battle with likely swelling imports due to a wave of new demand from new generation plants.”
Coal India Ltd, which makes more than 80% of the nation’s coal, has said it will double output to about one billion tonnes in five years.