Coal India sees 65% spike in e-auction bookings at 41 mn tonnes

The special categort e-auction launched in July is part of the company's efforts to bring down coal imports

State-owned miner Coal India Limited (CIL) witnessed a 65 per cent increase in the coal booked through the e-auction mode.  

CIL booked 41.4 million tonne of raw coal in the four rounds of e-auctions that it held during the April-September 2020 period compared to 25.1 MT in the corresponding period last fiscal. 

The company in a statement said this is part of ongoing efforts to bring down import of coal. 

Apart from long-term fuel supply agreements that CIL has with power plants and several non-power companies, it also periodically holds e-auction of coal for several industries. 

In July, CIL launched a special category of e-auction of coal for those companies and traders which import coal to meet their requirements. CIL said 13.4 MTs was booked in this exclusive auction for non-power consumers. 

"Last year’s coal import trend revealed that 40 per cent of coal imports were by traders. CIL decided to give more thrust in auction sales which resulted in higher volumes," said CIL. 

  

CIL could net 10 per cent average premium over notified value. However it was lower than last year when it received 48 per cent average premium over notified price.

“We anticipated the liquidity crunch that Covid would bring to our customers and brought down the reserve price close to zero to help them lift more coal during the lockdown phase”, said a CIL executive. 

Special forward auction for power producers netted 10 MTs while special spot auction yielded 2 MTs during the period. 

The company is planning to focus more on non-power segment as power plants sit on comfortable supply situation.

Given the excessive coal stock available with CIL, the ministry of coal also recently approved the company’s plan to supply 100 per cent of the normative requirement of the thermal power units.