Page 39 - Coal India

Petcoke ban, an opportunity for Coal India

With petcoke and furnace oil use banned in states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana and as other states may follow, concerns for cement manufacturers is likely to remain elevated. But, it is a blessing in disguise for India's largest coal producer, Coal India. The ban comes at a time when fuel costs are on the rise, and will see further increase with petcoke being banned. Since coal linkages are not easily available, among the few options for companies will be to source coal from e-auctions. Linkage coal is visibly cheaper than one sourced from e-auctions, while both are not cost-efficient compared to petcoke. Landed cost of imported coal work out to be 35-40 per cent higher than petcoke prices, highlights Tina Virmani of Kotak Securities. Binod Modi of Reliance Securities feels that considering 20-25 per cent cost difference between imported petcoke and coal costs, the per tonne costs of making cement can increase by Rs 50-150.Nevertheless, as cement companies try to source ...

Coal India staff protest against pay disparity on WhatsApp, Twitter

A Coal India official said ONGC employees were getting better pay than Coal India as ONGC revised its wages in 2007

Coal India posts Rs 369 cr net profit in Q2

Average price realisation from e-auction and long-term fuel supply agreements also remained firm

Coal ministry prioritises turning Coal India into a 'clean' company

In its quest to emerge as a cleaner company, the coal ministry has prioritized development and adoption of clean coal technologies like coal to liquid, coal to polychemicals and others besides other priorities.A statement issued by Coal India, quoted coal secretary Susheel Kumar, as stating that the ministry has emphasized on environmental management and responsible mining, quality of the product and safety of the labourers working in the mines as the other priority areas for the company.The official was in the city to attend the 43rd Foundation Day of Coal India.The statement issued noted that the grade slippage between promised quality and delivered quality, which has been one of the key concerns of the coal consumers across segments, will be dealt with while the company will also ensure that environmental norms and workers' safety procedures are followed diligently. Optimistic about Coal India generating better profits in the future as coal demand goes up, Kumar said that Coal ...

Odisha sends show cause notice to Coal India's MCL to recover Rs 20,000 cr

The Odisha government has sent a showcause notice to Coal India Ltd (CIL) subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) for excess coal production between 2000-01 and 2010-11.The notice is viewed as a precursor to the state government recovering cost of excess production calculated at about Rs 20,000 crore. The notice is served on 27 coal mines in MCL's command area."We have despatched a notice to MCL to showcause. The state government would invite MCL authorities for a hearing by the end of this month. Later, a demand notice would be sent to realise cost of excess production", said a state government official.An MCL source said the company was yet to receive any letter and could comment only after reviewing the government notice.The state government is issuing notices to extract cost of minerals raised in excess of the limits set under environment clearance, mining plan endorsed by Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), consent to operate awarded by the State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) and .

Coal reserves down at power plants despite CIL raising output

Coal India accounts for a little over 80% of thermal coal sales in the country

Coal India may consider price hike if unable to contain operational costs

Faced with the burden of an additional cash outflow of atleast Rs. 5,600 every year on account of wage revision, Coal India may eventually hike coal prices to maintain its profit margin. It may happen in case the Maharatna company is not able to curtail its operating costs.Although an immediate price hike isn't under consideration, senior company officials are of the view that first, they need to curtail operating short-term and mid-term costs like closure of loss making mines, offering voluntary retirement scheme to curtail direct employees and opt for mine mechanisation."Eventually, if these doesn't help to maintain margins and in case global coal prices starts going up to touch, say, $ 100 a tonne, we may have to opt for a price correction", a senior company official told Business Standard.After a prolonged sluggish period, coal prices are currently hovering around $ 91 a tonne.Wages and other employee benefit expenses account for 48 per cent of the total cost overhead of the ...

Coal India plans for a liberalised regime

More focus on long-term supply and diversification

INTUC calls for strike at Coal India

With the bonus declaration of Rs. 57,000 per worker falling short of its expectations, the Congress supported INTUC trade union, Indian National Mineworkers' Federation (INMWF) has served a three-day strike notice to Coal India beginning November 6, 2017.INMWF was expecting a minimum bonus of Rs. 60,000 for each of the workers while the amount agreed between the four other unions and the company management is shorter by Rs. 3,000 of INTUC's expectations. S. Q. Zama, secretary general at INMWF said that apart from his union's disappointment with the bonus payment, the union is also protesting against the clauses Coal India has put forward to the five Central Trade Unions which ranges from not offering employment to the family of the worker in case of death or disablement, keeping the mines open for the entire week (thereby doing away with the compulsory rest day on Sunday) and other clauses.As many as 12 issues in the charter of demands has been served to the company as well as the ...

Coal India to ask pithead plants to use road network

After coal shortage in power generation has staged a comeback with four of them entering the critical and another 12 entering the super critical category in mid-September, Coal India has devised a plan to address the shortage problem asking short distance power plants to use the road ferrying network so that railway rakes can be made available for the thermal generating stations at longer distances.A Coal India official said that to free up railway rakes for longer distance plants, generating stations located within 60 kms from the pitheads (pithead plants) can lift coal as much as they wish (as per the fuel supply agreement) and transport it via trucks which will be cost effective."Usually railway freight costs are higher for short distance while it is cheaper for long distances. Previously, there was a mix between railway and road transport for ferrying coal to plants which are short distance. Now, road transport will be given priority", a company official said.Typically, each ...

Coal India aims to join big league of miners

PSU major diversifies into metals and aims to position itself as a holistic energy company

Coal India nears coking coal asset acquisition in Australia

On the lookout for acquisition of coking coal assets abroad, government-owned Coal India is in an advanced stage of talks with an Australian coal mining company based out of Queensland, where it plans to acquire substantial stake.In this regard, Coal India had floated a closed tender for empanelled merchant bankers, of which PwC and Ernst & Young have shown interest, to carry the transaction forward."The Australian company had asked us to revert after appointing a merchant banker and the tender to select one is in an advanced stage," a senior Coal India official told Business Standard. He said they'd take a "substantial stake", most likely 20-25 per cent at least. A hoc budget of Rs 6,000 crore has been okayed, for now, to take the transaction forward.Without revealing the name of the Australian miner, Coal India sources said the former has six licenses for mining under the application stage and one licence had been granted to it by the Australian authorities.For taking the equity

Coal India sets up monitoring cell for supply to thermal power plants

Monitoring plan aims at coordination with Railways, Power Utilities for supplying coal

Coal India: There's good news finally

For a stock which has lost almost a third of its market value from the highs seen in August last year and having touched its all-time intra-day low of Rs 234 on 11th August 2017, things may be turning around. Coal India's (CIL) dispatch numbers for August month reflect a 19 per cent year-on-year growth, and helped the company's year-to-date run-rate to improve to 6.6 per cent. Although production still lags (down 0.9 per cent during first five months of FY18) as CIL continues to liquidate inventory, August's production was two per cent ahead of target. Analysts at Kotak Institutional Equities feel that coal dispatches should likely improve given the improving profile of generation, and record low levels of inventory at power plants (8 days as of end-August 2017).This is certainly good news for CIL, which has seen volumes take a hit since July last year as power plants resorted to destocking, a trend that continued almost till end of CY2016. Consequently, CIL's dispatches in FY17 grew .

Coal India sets up Control Cell to monitor critical stocks situation

The monitoring plan aims at coordination with railways, power utilities, independent power producers

Why Coal India failed to sign wage revision agreement with the workers

Trade union leaders blamed the coal ministry for the delay

Central Coalfields' Gopal Singh appointed as interim chairman of Coal India

The union coal ministry has appointed the current chairman of Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL), Gopal Singh as the interim chairman of the world's largest coal miner Coal India, after it failed to select a wholetime candidate to head the Maharatna company.Sources said, the ministry has communicated to the company, a day after Sutirtha Bhattacharya, the immediate past chairman retired on August 31, that Singh will be given the additional charge of chairman of Coal India apart from his regular duty to head CCL."Singh will continue to head Coal India until a regular full time chairman is appointed", a senior company executive said. Interestingly, Singh had applied for the top job in April this year sending his resume to the Public Enterprises Selection Board (PESB). However, the PESB, rejected Singh alongwith five other applicants stating that it hasn't found any applicants suitable for the post. Business Standard was the first to report about Singh's application."His application was ...

Coal India's profits may fall 9% post wage negotiation

The company is estimated to have conceded to a Rs 5,000 crore wage hike

Coal India workers get 20 per cent wage hike after prolonged bargaining

The salary hike will be applicable from June 2016 onwards

NITI Aayog suggests break up of Coal India subsidiaries into separate arms

It also suggested using a market mechanism to open the sector for commercial mining