Coal India to continue with fuel supply to power plants under import substitution in current fiscal
State-run Coal India’s(CIL ) has posted 52.5% growth in e-auction bookings during the first two months of the ongoing fiscal.
CIL’s total allocated quantity this fiscal till May’21 increased to 21.5 Million Tonnes (MTs) under the five auction windows, against 14.1 MTs for the comparable period last year, a company executive said.
With the demand for coal gaining steam, CIL garnered 16% premium over the notified price during April-May’2, compared to 7% in the same period last year. To encourage coal consumers lift additional coal quantities, reserve price under all e-auction windows was kept at par with notified price during the first six months of the last fiscal, he said.
The upward trend in the allocation was primarily driven up by non-power sector which accounted for 50% of the total booked quantity of 21.5 MTs.
Under ‘exclusive auction for non-power’, this sector booked 10.8 MTs during the referred period posting 77% growth against 6.1 MTs that it booked during comparable period last year.
E-auction booking by power sector consumers also logged 49% growth at 6.1 MTs under ‘Special forward auction’ meant exclusively for them. Allocation during April-May’20 was 4.1 MTs.
“Though there is revival in supplies to power sector, our concern is that there is still a bit of vacillation in the demand. We hope it stabilises soon” said the executive.
Auction allocation under ‘Spot auction’ window where all coal consumers including coal traders could participate, also clocked 35% growth ending May21 at 4.6 MTs.
CIL recorded all-time high of 124 MTs in e-auction sales in FY’21 posting 88% growth over the preceding year. “Hopefully, if the demand regains stability we aim to surpass the last year’s mark with increased add on over the notified price without letdown on supply commitment to power sector and non-power sector”, said the executive.