Coal news and updates

ABG Cement buys South African coal on high sea sales basis

June 10: ABG Cement Ltd on June 09 finalised a deal to procure 50,000 tons of South African coal through a local trader on high seas sales basis, an industry source said.

The material, with 6500 Kcal/kg (ADB), Ash content of 15.5%, IM of 2.5-3.0%, VM of 30-32% and Sulphur of 0.6 to 0.7%, was procured through Adani Enterprises at about $90 per ton CFR Mundra, the source said.

ABG Cement, which primarily buys coal through stock and sale route, had also purchased a cargo of Indonesian coal with 5600-5700 GAR for use at its power plants through the same trader, the source added.

According to information available with ICMW, ABG Cement is currently using about 80,000 tons of imported coal per month of which 45,000 tons is South African and the rest is Indonesian coal.

The company consumes about 1300 tons of South African coal per day in its kilns for clinker making and another about 800 tons per day of Indonesian coal for its power plant.

“Recently, it had bought high calorific value Indonesian through stock and sale route and old bookings with a leading trader in place of South African coal which had led to increase in overall consumption of coal in kilns by 10%,” the source added.

ABG had commenced clinker production at its plant in Gujarat in July 2013, but the operation was streamlined only recently. The company had to technical shut down of two months within two months of starting production and another technical shut down of same period in January 2014.

Since commencing production, the company has produced about 8-9 lakh tons of clinker, a majority of which was exported to Egypt, Sri Lanka, East Africa, UAE among other countries,  a company source told ICMW.