The story of peak coal was bolstered by the gradual increase in coal demand from China, India, and the rest of the world over the three pandemic years.
Significant overcapacity in the coal and power value chain in India was caused by a lower-than-anticipated increase in electricity consumption and fierce competition from renewable energy (RE) encouraged by legislation, notably solar power that receives priority access to the grid (‘must run status’).
Though it was anticipated that India’s need for coal would rise in the near future, accounting for 14% of world consumption by 2030, it was predicted that growth in coal demand would be far slower than previously anticipated.
The IEA predicted that India’s demand for coal (for the production of electricity) would only rise by 2.6 percent year until 2030. The mines ministry said on Tuesday that India’s mineral output increased 6.4% over the prior year in May.
According to preliminary data from the Indian Bureau of Mines, the overall growth between April 2022 and May 2023 was 5.8% compared to the same time period in the prior fiscal year.
The notable minerals that witnessed a surge in production levels during May were coal (762 lakh tonne), lignite (35 lakh tonne), petroleum (crude) (25 lakh tonne), iron ore (253 lakh tonne), limestone (387 lakh tonne), natural gas (utilized) 2838 million cu. m, bauxite (23,86,000 tonne), chromite (37,20,00 tonne), copper conc. (9,000 tonnes), lead conc. (33,000 tonnes), manganese ore (3,29,000 tonne), zinc conc. (1,33,000 tonne), phosphorite (1,400,00 tonne), and magnesite (11,000 tonnes) each, and gold 97 kg.
The following significant minerals are also growing more positively in May 2023 compared to May 2022: manganese ore (40.4%), magnesite (28.2%), copper concentrate (24.4%), chromite (16.3%), iron ore (13.6%), limestone (10.1%), lead concentrate (9.7%), coal (7%), bauxite (4.8%), and zinc concentrate (2.9%).
Other significant minerals that are experiencing negative growth at the same time include lignite (-17.7%), natural gas (U) (0.3%), crude oil (-1.9%), phosphorite (-6.3%), and petroleum (U) (-1.9%).
