In the second half of May, Tata Steel bought roughly 75,000 tonnes of coal from Russia, just weeks after vowing to quit doing business with the country. Tata Steel announced in April that it has sought alternative raw materials for all of its manufacturing locations in India, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands to end its reliance on Russia, and that it had made “a strategic choice to stop doing business with Russia.” Still, Tata Steel shipped roughly 75,000 tonnes of PCI coal, which is used in steelmaking, from Russia’s Vanino port in May, with 42,000 tonnes arriving in Paradip on May 18 and 32,500 tonnes arriving in Haldia.
A spokesman for Tata Steel said the deal to import coal from Russia was made before the company’s announcement to cut business ties with Russia.
“There has been no other PCI Coal purchase by Tata Steel from Russia after the announcement,” the spokesman said in an emailed statement to Reuters.
India has refrained from condemning Russia – with which it has longstanding political ties – over what Moscow describes as its “special operations” in Ukraine. India has instead defended its purchase of Russian goods as a bid to diversify supplies and argues that a sudden halt would boost prices and hurt consumers.
Tata Steel was the only major steelmaker to announce it would stop doing business with Russia. Other Indian steelmakers have been importing bulk quantities of coal from Russia, trade data reviewed by Reuters showed.
The PCI coal was imported in a vessel named Panamax Ostria, the trade sources said. The government source confirmed Tata Steel had imported 75,000 tonnes of coal from Russia in May, but did not give more details.
Details on Tata Steel’s Russian coal imports have not been previously reported.
Purchases of Russian coal by Indian buyers including steelmakers have spiked in recent weeks despite Western sanctions on Moscow, as traders offer discounts of up to 30%, Reuters reported on Saturday.
Cheap coal supplies are especially crucial to Indian steelmakers now, as they are reeling from export duties imposed by the Indian government last month to curb local inflation. The Nifty metals index has fallen over 20% since the decision to levy export taxes on May 21, with Tata Steel falling about 26%, JSW Steel declining 12% and Jindal Steel and Power’s shares losing 21% of their value since the announcement.
