How are coal prices likely to rule in the coming financial year?

After a year in which the prices of coal has gone up sharply, there looks to be no respite in the coming year too. According to estimates put out by ICRA, the prices of imported coal was all set to rise by around 45-55% in the first quarter of FY23 itself. That is likely to make coal imports a lot more expensive, although there is not much of a choice that the government and the private power companies would really have in this case.

What are the reasons for this spike in coal prices? It is actually a mix of supply disruption and higher demand amidst high levels of inventory stocking demand from power units. To add to the tightness of the situation, most of the Western nations have put an embargo on Russian coal imports, which will create a severe shortage of coal in global markets. The coal price spike may be inevitable as it would be hard to offset the impact of Russian shortfall.