JSW Steel Urges Govt to Ease Coke Import Restrictions

JSW Steel's CEO, Jayant Acharya, expressed his apprehensions regarding the restrictions on India's metallurgical coke imports, advocating for increased import quotas as domestic shortages are impacting the operations of steelmakers and their ability to source from essential global suppliers.

On Tuesday, Jayant Acharya, the chief executive of JSW Steel, highlighted that India's import restrictions on metallurgical coke, a vital fuel for steel production, have raised concerns among numerous producers. Acharya further noted that the largest steel producer in the country is currently obtaining coking coal primarily from Australia, the United States, and Mozambique.

In the first half of 2025, Indian steel mills managed to fulfill only approximately 50% of their metallurgical coke requirements from local suppliers, underscoring the shortages and intensifying demands to relax import limitations, as reported by Reuters last month.

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To bolster the domestic metallurgical coke sector, the world's second-largest producer of crude steel implemented import restrictions in January. In June, the government prolonged these restrictions, establishing country-specific quotas and limiting foreign purchases to 1.4 million tons from July 1 to December 31.

Indian steel manufacturers have urged the government to significantly increase import quotas, requesting nearly a sevenfold rise to mitigate the supply shortage, as previously reported by Reuters.

In August, JSW Steel executives also reached out to government officials to request an increase in the company's allocation, citing operational difficulties at two of its facilities located in the southern state of Karnataka and the central state of Chhattisgarh, according to sources cited by Reuters.