The second tranche of the commercial mines’ auctions failed to garner adequate participation in the massive pool of coal blocks being offered for sale.
In a major contradiction to the initial trends, interest was elicited for only 19 blocks out of the 67 offered in the latest round of auctions. Interestingly, this was the highest number of blocks on offer in a particular tranche after commencement of the auctions regime since 2014.
In the technical round, only 34 bids from 20 different participants were received although the coal ministry had earlier stated that it had received an overwhelming response to the sales of tender documents.
Further throwing cold water on the government’s initiative of coal block allocations through the auction route, only eight out the 19 coal blocks are eligible for the final round of auctions, having secured more than one technical bid.
The remaining blocks with single bids will be considered for re-sale in a subsequent auction process after the conclusion of the current round.
Key takeaways
Out of the five blocks having coking coal reserves, interest came in for four, namely Lalgarh North, Jogeshwar, Baherband North and Choritand Tilaiya. In contrast, no such engagement was seen in the previous tranche.
However, selective preference was recorded for blocks with lower coal reserves. Interestingly, of the eight blocks which have received multiple bids, none has coal reserves of more than 250 million tonnes.
Aurobindo Group and Sunflag Iron and Steel emerged as the joint largest bidders with four different entries in the list of bidders, which saw an improvement in the count of end-user industries participating in the auctions.
Notably, Vedanta, Hindalco, Godavari, Sunflag, Adhunik Power and Prakash Industry are some of the companies which have submitted bids in the technical round.
The list also introduced some newbies in the auction fray, like Hiltop Hirise, South West Pinnacle and Shree Satya Mines among others who participated for the first time.
What’s next
The technical bids would be examined over a one-month period following which the final round of electronic auctions will commence from 9 Aug ’21.
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