Coal India to start imports by Sept-end

Final pre-bid meeting with MMTC and STC, through which imports will take place, later this week

State-owned Coal India (CIL) is likely to float a tender for its maiden coal import by September-end. The miner, however, would seek advance payment from its customers for the imported coal.

“A series of meeting with power producers and trading firms has taken place. The first import shipment would be for five to six million tonnes (mt), which would be enough to meet the supply commitment for the time being. Larger shipment could happen later in the year,” a senior CIL official said.

According to officials, the final pre-bid meeting with government-owned trading firms like MMTC and State Trading Corporation, through which imports shipments would be channelised, is scheduled later this week. On August 8, CIL had a Pre-Notice Inviting Tender meeting with power producing public sector power entities regarding supply of imported coal to power plants facing coal shortage.

“Since this would be the first shipment, the modality of import is being worked out. We expect the power plants to make advance payments for imported coal. So, this would happen after getting firm commitments from the power plants,” the official said.

The tender, expected to be floated by September-end, would specify the quality aspect — the gross calorific value as per CIL’s Fuel Supply Agreement (FSA) with power producers.

CIL has signed 140 FSAs, committing 80 per cent assured supply to power stations with a total capacity of about 60,000 Mw. Coal India can supply 65 per cent of the requirement from domestic production and another 15 per cent through import.

According to CIL, a few FSAs are yet to be signed due to some plant-specific issues. The company has to sign total 173 FSAs for a capacity of 78,000 Mw.

The Centre had issued a Presidential directive to CIL last year to sign FSAs with the power producers assuring at least 80 per cent fuel supply.

As far as domestic production is concerned, between April and July, CIL produced 135.64 mt of coal against a target of 140.32 mt during the period.

The offtake stood at 153.47 mt against the target of 156.86 mt.