| Date: |
16-01-2015 |
| Subject: |
CIL asks clients to specify fuel import requirement for 2015-16 |
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KOLKATA: Barely a month after the first consignment of coal imported by Coal India landed at Mundra Port, the monopoly miner has shot off letters to its clients seeking estimates of imported fuel that they intend to purchase during 2015-16In the current fiscal, Coal India or CIL will bring in 0.5 million tonnes of coal on behalf of its customers, succeeding in importing the fuel after four years of efforts, although it had initially hoped to import 5 million tonnes as it expected higher demand from buyers.
In the first consignment, it imported 1.7 lakh tonnes coal from Indonesia and supplied it to Neyveli Thermal Power in Tuticorn and two independent power producers in Punjab - Talwandi Sabo Power and Nawa.
"We had placed an order for 0.5 million tonnes of coal for four companies - two private and two state-run companies. Another company had placed a small order with us, but the size was small and it didn't find any overseas seller," a senior CIL official said.
The official, who did not wish to be named, said that the rest of the ordered volume will be imported during the current fiscal. "We hope the import volume will rise as demand for coal rises with more thermal capacities coming up," the official added.
CIL has been mandated to import coal on behalf of its consumers to meet the nation's demand for the fuel. It had decided to place orders for companies that would pay in advance. Although 40-50 companies had shown interest in the beginning, only five placed firm orders.
The miner spent a few years trying to enter into a long-term tie-up with overseas coal producers in lieu of strategic stakes in these companies. However, this did not materialise as the prices quoted for the coal being supplied worked out to be more than the prevailing market price and CIL abandoned the project.
Besides, CIL's largest consumer, NTPC, backed out since it did not want to buy the coal at prices higher than the market price. NTPC had earlier shown interest in sourcing 10 million tonnes of imported coal through CIL.
"The foreign companies were asking for a premium on the market price because they had to commit to 10 years of supply. NTPC did not agree to the premium and the arrangement didn't work," a CIL official said.
Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com
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