Coal India Ltd has said that it expects to allocate 120 mn t coal via e-auctions in FY ’21, buoyed by the strong response witnessed for coal sales.
The company has significantly raised coal volume offered under e-auctions in order to liquidate the excess stock, which stood nearly 35 mn t higher on the year at 59.27 mn t at the end of Dec ’20.
During the first 9 months of FY ’21 (Apr-Dec ’20) offered quantity in auctions have increased 5-folds to 325.12 mn t compared with 59.09 mn t in Apr-Dec ’19, against which 81.44 mn t was booked, thereby recording growth of 77% y-o-y from 46.2 mn t in the year-ago period.
Although, lower sales percentage against offered volume reflects a sluggish overall demand, CIL has identified specific mines in ECL, CCL, and BCCL to further expand the sales. Notably, these subsidiaries (excluding NECL which has temporarily suspended its operation) have clocked the highest increase over the notified prices registered at 40%, 23% and 22% respectively.
Subsidiary-wise auction summary for Apr-Dec ’20
Moreover, inclusion of new auction outlet called ‘special spot for coal importers’ has helped the company to create an additional avenue for raising the sales volume. The auction envisaged exclusively to reduce imports from abroad has seen witnessed sale of 7.3 mn t since its inception in Oct ’20.
In the wake of COVID-19 led demand contraction particularly from power sector, coal prices in the auction are yet to recover which have fetched 15% premium over notified price in Apr-Dec ’20 period compared with the gain of 49% noted in the year-ago period.
Till the demand from power sector stabilizes, the company is focusing on non-power sector with an aim to ramp up coal dispatch.
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