Coal India's e-auction allocation up 29% in April-July this year

Coal India said its e-auction allocation stood at 35.5 MT during April-July 2021 under five auction categories, registering a sharp 28.6 per cent increase over the same period a year ago

State-owned Coal India on Thursday said its e-auction allocation stood at 35.5 million tonnes (MT) during April-July 2021 under five auction categories, registering a sharp 28.6 per cent increase over the same period a year ago.

Its e-auction allocation was 27.6 MT in the corresponding four months of the 2020-21 fiscal.

Coal India Ltd's (CIL) actual e-auction net sales were worth over Rs 4,700 crore during the first quarter of the ongoing fiscal, posting a jump of 87 per cent year-on-year.

The sale volume was 30.2 MT in the June quarter this fiscal as against 15.9 MT in the same period last year when the pandemic slowed down the sales, it said in a statement.

With international coal prices spiraling upwards with no signs of let up, consumer preference for domestic coal is seemingly gaining ground, it said.

The effect of ascending cost of coal sourced from overseas was evidenced in the country's coal importers booking 70 per cent of the total quantity of 2.4 MT offered to them under their special spot e-auction during April-July. The add-on over the notified price under this category was 52 per cent.

Interestingly, for the month of July almost all the quantity of 1.6 MT offered to coal importers under exclusive special e-auction window was booked.

Under exclusive auction for non-power consumers, the allocation was 11.8 MT during the first four months of the current fiscal logging around 69 per cent growth. It would help consumers of this segment in increasing their blending percentage and cap the coal cost in production of their respective products, the statement said.

Last year, in the same period 7 MT was booked by them.

Power sector also clocked 37.5 per cent growth under special forward auction at 11 MT during the referred period. Quantity booked by this sector same period last year was 8 MT.

For the month of July, CIL allocated a total volume of 8.3 MT with a month-on-month rise of 2.5 MT, compared to 5.8 MT of June. Auction bookings in a month grew by 43 per cent.

Compared to July of last year, the allocation was up 9 per cent.

Premiums over notified value are improving with revival in coal sales. Enhanced volume sales coupled with add-ons would lead to a positive impact on the company's bottomline, the company said.

CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output.