Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), the mining arm of Coal India operating out of Jharkhand, has begun regular auctions for FY ’22, with the initial round of sales concluded last week.
Surprisingly, the company was yet to offer coal through any of the auction windows during the first two months of FY ’22 (Apr-May ’21). In contrast, bulk volumes of 21.7 million tonnes (mn t) of coal had been put up for sale via the auction route in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.
Unlike the other subsidiaries of CIL, CCL had commenced the new fiscal with reduced inventory of 10.56 mn t which was around 2-3 mn t lower than the levels recorded in the previous fiscal. Healthy coal demand helped the inventory to get liquidated faster.
During May ’21, the company produced 4.21 mn t of coal against which 6.56 mn t was dispatched, resulting in a fall in inventory to 6.37 mn t at the end of the month.
Upcoming auctions
CCL resumed sales with the spot auction scheme which was initially scheduled on 11 Jun ’20, but it was later re-scheduled to 18 Jun ’21.
In the next round of sale to be held on 28 Jun ’21, the company has offered 555,000 tonnes (t) coal under exclusive auction which caters to the coal requirements of the non-power sector specifically.
Entire volume offered for the auction will comprise of coking coal; of which 30 rakes of washed coking coal has been offered to meet the metallurgical coal needs of steel plants for the three-month period of Jul-Sept ’21.
Source-wise offer for exclusive auction
The company had failed to garner active response in the previous rounds of exclusive auctions concluded in Mar ’21, as entire volumes of washed coal had been left unsold.
However, with the persistent demand for coking coal in steel production, the upcoming auction is likely to fetch improved demand at a time imported prices are soaring.
Notably, Australian coking coal prices have sustained the upward momentum on consistently strong buying interest for August loading cargoes amidst supply tightness. As per CoalMint’s assessment, prices of the premium HCC were assessed at USD 176/t on FoB basis.
Leave a Reply