CIL plans import cell for non-coking coal

With the Centre revising the coal import target from 25 million tonnes (mt) to 35 mt in 2009-10 to meet the growing requirement of the power companies, Coal India Limited (CIL) has got its act together by planning to set up an import cell to import coal on its own.

CIL aims to import 4 mt of non-coking coal in this fiscal for the first time since its inception mainly to meet the requirement of the power generating companies in the country. It may be noted that 4 mt of imported coal would be equivalent to 6 mt of coal produced in the country as the calorific value of imported coal was about 50 per cent higher than the domestic coal.

“We will set up an in-house import cell soon which will work out the modalities for import of non-coking coal. CIL aims to import 4 mt of non-coking coal in 2009-10 which is as per the target given to us by the Planning Commission,” Partha S Bhattacharyya, chairman, CIL told Business Standard. The overseas destinations from which CIL would import non-coking coal would hinge on the specifications of coal of our consumers, he said.

In 2008-09,the country imported about 18 mt of coal as against the target of 20 mt of imports. National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC), the country’s largest power producer which planned to add around 3,000 MW of power in this fiscal aimed to import 12.5 mt of coal in this fiscal compared to 8.2 mt which it imported in 2008-09.

CIL would provide 312 mt of coal to power utilities in this fiscal compared to 292 mt which the navratna coal PSU (public sector undertaking) provided in 2008-09. CIL had recorded a 6.4 per cent growth in its coal output at about 400 mt in 2008-09 and it was expecting about 7 per cent growth in this fiscal.

The coal PSU’s production was projected at about 520 mt by 2012 but the demand for coal in the county would reach 730 mt by then, thereby creating a shortfall of over200 mt. Bhattacharyya pointed out, in the long run, about 50 per cent of the coal production needed to come from the captive coal blocks to meet the country’s burgeoning coal requirement. About 190 captive coal blocks have already been alloted for captive coal production with an estimated reserve of about 40 billion tonnes.