Coal prices may soften in the coming months, bringing respite to cement companies. The market expectation is that coking coal price is likely to depreciate by $30-$40 per tonne but there may be a drop of $10 per tonne on thermal coal. A drop in global commodity prices and softening of crude oil coupled with a sluggish demand from Japan are likely to have a cooling effect on coal prices. Analyst expects the prices of coking coal to come down by $30-$40 per tonne as the situation has improved post-Australian floods. They fell this will have an impact on the Indian prices as well. Australian coking coal futures is hovering around $330 per tonne and the spot price is $320. India imports around 92 million tonne coal annually. Of this, the country imports 28 million coking coal and the rest 64 million tonne is thermal coking coal. India produces around 4 million tonne coking coal annually. The Planning Commission has predicted that the coal shortage in India will soar to 200 million tonne by the end of the 12th Plan (2012-17), with a demand of 1,000 million tonne against a production of 800 million tonne.