April 1, 2009: Operators of power grids of all state power utilities across the country will have to abide by a more stringent frequency range as notified by Central Electricity Regulatory Commission (CERC), or face severe penal measures, from April 1.

March 31, 2009: State-owned mining giant NMDC would soon join hands with South Africa's Kopanao Ke Metla Investment Company for acquiring coal, iron ore and manganese properties in African nations.

March 31, 2009: CESC Ltd, the flagship company of the Kolkata-based RPG Group, expects to complete land acquisition for its proposed 1,000-MW coal-based power plant at Neulapoi in Orissa's Dhenkanal district within three months.

March 31, 2009: Four companies -- Sophia Power (in which L.N. Mittal is an investor), Adani Power, KSK Power and Monnet Ispat -- are in the race for participating in NMDC's thermal coal venture.

March 31, 2009: Tata Power Company (TPC), India's largest private power utility, has commercialised the 250-MW unit 8 of its Trombay Thermal Power Station in Chembur near Mumbai.

March 28, 2009: Coal India expects to invite tenders for extracting coal from underground mines by June 2009. It has already concluded a few rounds of pre-NIT (notice for inviting tenders) meetings, and has sent pre-NITs to all the nine shortlisted parties.

March 28, 2009: Vale has launched a $1.3bn (£908.5m) coal mining project in Mozambique which will make it the second-largest coal producer in Africa.

March 26, 2009: ArcelorMittal Poland has indefinitely postponed renovation of the closed blast furnace No. 3 at its Krakow plant.

March 26, 2009: UK in 2008 witnessed a growth of 5.3 percent in its coal production and reached 17.91 million tons mark compared to the production figure in 2007.

March 26, 2009: Three spot deals of 90,000 tons each for delivery in the third quarter 2009 were realized on March 24, 2009, at the Australian thermal coal market by loading at Newcastle (Phys NEWC) of globalCOAL, all at $64 per ton fob.

March 26, 2009: A spot deal of 300,000 tons for delivery in 2010 was realized on March 24, 2009 at the South African thermal coal market (physical RB) of globalCOAL at $77 per ton fob.

March 26, 2009: Japan's integrated mills and Australia's BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance has managed a compromise of sorts in its coal price settlements.

March 25, 2009: PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) of Indonesia during 2008 sold around 7.97 million tons (mt) of coal in the domestic market, up by 19.1 percent from the domestic sales' figures during 2007.

March 25, 2009: PT Tambang Batubara Bukit Asam (PTBA) of Indonesia witnessed a rise in its coal production in 2008.

March 25, 2009: PT Berau Coal of Indonesia during 2008 sold a total of around 4.91 million tons (mt) of coal in the domestic market. This is 11.2 percent more than the sales quantum during 2007.

March 25, 2009: PT Berau Coal of Indonesia produced 12.92 million tons of coal during calendar year 2008 which moved up by 9.4 percent compared to the corresponding period last year. According to Tex Report data, the company produced 11.81 million tons in 2007.

Source: Coal Insights Bureau

March 25, 2009: Coal India Ltd (CIL) is going ahead with implementation of the demonstration scheme for coal bed methane (CBM) and coal mine methane (CMM) in two separate coal blocks of Bharat Coking Coal.

March 25, 2009: Coal India Ltd (CIL) expects the exploration of coal block for its proposed coal gasification project in joint venture with Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) to be done within 18 months.

March 25, 2009: On March 23, 2009 at physical thermal coal market of globalCOAL, two ARA DES deals of ACPRS (Australian, Colombian, Polish, Russian and South African) coal were realized.

March 25, 2009: The South African thermal coal market (physical RB) of globalCOAL witnessed settlement of four spot deals on March 23, 2009.