By Krishna N Das
NEW DELHI, March 19 (Reuters) - India's Jindal Steel and Power Ltd
Recent coking, or metallurgical, coal price settlements by major miners showed a fall in the price of all coal types for the first quarter of 2014, underscoring a weak demand outlook from steelmakers in Asia.
"We get 50,000 tonnes per month from our mine in Mozambique and another 50,000 tonnes we buy from Australia," said V.R. Sharma, deputy managing director of Jindal Steel.
"But after three months we will not be buying because we have our own mines there," he told Reuters late on Tuesday.
Jindal Steel, headed by billionaire lawmaker Naveen Jindal, got access to 650 million tonnes of coking coal resources in October after buying a majority stake in Gujarat NRE Coking Coal
Gujarat NRE Coking's two mines, located in New South Wales, are currently producing 1.5 million tonnes per year and are expected to have an output of 5 million tonnes by 2016.
Australia is the world's largest coking coal exporter, with shipments expected to rise 6 percent to 163.9 million tonnes this fiscal year ending March 31.
Sharma said Jindal Steel's coking coal consumption will more than double to 2.6 million tonnes by 2016 as it expands capacity. About 80 percent of the coal will come from its mines abroad and the rest it will buy from the open market.
But unlike other Indian companies such as Steel Authority of India Ltd
India's coking coal imports are set to rise 6 percent to 35 million tonnes this fiscal year ending March 31. Domestic output has been stagnant at 18 million tonnes per year as most reserves are in thickly populated areas.
(Editing by Himani Sarkar)
((Krishna.Das@thomsonreuters.com)(+91-11-4178-1023, +91-98711-18314)(Reuters Messaging: Krishna.Das.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net, @Krishnadas56))
Keywords: INDIA JINDAL STEEL/COAL