Australia would soon look into inordinate delays in shipments of coking coal to India. The domestic steel industry has complained that the delays are due to loading of coking coal on ships being accorded lowest priority at Australian ports.
?There is a quota system followed at the Australian ports whereby coking coal is given lower priority. With India?s increasing dependence on coking coal from that country, we need the Australian government?s help to sort out the matter,? said a steel industry source.
Responding to the complaint from a Steel Authority of India Ltd (Sail) representative, Australian trade minister Simon Crean said he would take up the issue with authorities concerned once he gets concrete evidence of such discrimination.
He also assured of addressing the infrastructure constraints in his country by developing ports with larger capacity.
The Australian delegation, at a meeting with mines minister Sis Ram Ola, demanded seamless transaction in the mining sector and faster implementation of the newly envisaged National Mineral Policy.
The delegation assured Ola that with these reforms the Indian mining sector would attract huge investment from Australia.
Sail had imported 8 million tonne coking coal from Australia last year.