State-owned SAIL sourced around 8 coking coal shipments of 75,000 tonne each from Russia during April-September period of FY24, its Chairman Amarendu Prakash said on Thursday.

The official also said that International Coal Ventures Private Limited (ICVL) is looking to double its production capacity to 4 million tonne per annum (MTPA).

Mozambique-based ICVL is a special purpose vehicle of SAIL, RINL, NMDC, CIL and NTPC for acquiring coal mines and assets overseas.

"We have sourced 4 shipments of coking of 75,000 tonne each in the last (April-June) quarter from there," he told PTI in reply to a question on sourcing coking coal from Russia.

The chairman was speaking on the sidelines of 'mjunction Indian Steel Markets Conference' in the national capital.

On the number of shipments in the current (July-September) quarter, the chairman said the quantity is similar to the first quarter.

Eight shipments of 75,000 tonne each equals 6 lakh tonne coking coal from Russia.

Speaking further, Prakash said that to increase coking coal supplies for the company, there are plans to double the production capacity of ICVL from 2 MTPA at present.

The coking coal from ICVL will be supplied to SAIL and RINL, he said.

On the rising prices of coking, the official said it will directly affect the input cost of manufacturing steel and build pressure on the company's profit margins.

Coking coal prices have climbed to USD 341 per tonne CFR (cost and freight) India, from USD 230 a tonne in June-July 2023.

SAIL, under Ministry of Steel, is the country's largest steel making company with an annual capacity of over 21 MTPA.

Coking coal is a key raw material used in steel making and the players meet around 90 per cent requirement of coking coal through imports.

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