India's steel sector remains vulnerable to global coking coal price volatility despite being among the world's largest steel producers. Discuss the structural reasons and evaluate government measures to address this vulnerability.

India is the world's second-largest crude steel producer, yet it imports nearly 90% of its coking coal requirement — 56.05 MT in 2022-23 [1]. The recent surge in imported coking coal to $305/tonne, pushing HRC to ₹64,000/tonne and CRC to ₹75,000/tonne — a four-year high [5] — shows that scale of output has not bought insulation from input-price shocks.

Structural reasons for the vulnerability

• Quality deficit, not resource deficit: India holds about 34 billion tonnes of coking coal resources, but mining and washing technology have not kept pace with steel industry needs [3].
• High ash content: Indian coking coal typically carries 18–49% ash, making it unfit for direct use in the blast furnace [2].
• Washery bottleneck: washed-coal supply to steel plants remains limited; capacity addition through new washeries is still maturing [2][3].
• Technology lock-in: the coking-coal-intensive BF-BOF route dominates, where coking coal forms over 30% of production cost [5].
• Concentrated import basket: dependence on a few exporters transmits global supply disruptions directly into domestic prices.

Evaluating government measures

• Mission Coking Coal (2022), targeting 140 MT domestic production by FY 2029-30, correctly identifies the import problem [1]. Its Inter-Ministerial Committee sensibly recommended advanced beneficiation and a policy for disposal of washery rejects and middlings [2] — but progress is measured in raw tonnes, whereas steel plants can only use washed coal.
• The 12% safeguard duty on certain flat steel products (April 2025) shields producers from an import surge [4], yet it cushions output prices without touching the input-cost weakness; steel-using MSMEs bear the burden.
• The National Coal Index improves price transparency but is a monitoring, not a mitigating, tool [1].

The measures are directionally sound but incomplete. Success should be tracked through washed coking coal delivered to steel plants, backed by scrap-based electric arc furnace capacity that bypasses coking coal altogether — aligning cost security with the Atmanirbhar Bharat and green-steel goals.