Coal news and updates

CIL notified price may be reserve price at linkage bids

March 20: As a means of price discovery, the notified price of coal supplied by Coal India Limited may form the reserve price for the auction of coal linkages and letters of assurance (LoAs) and that reasonable quantities must be put up for auction since smaller quantities would lead to aggressive bidding by larger players and be unviable for the industry.

These were among the key takeaways from the meeting of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) set up for the task, which met on March 9, 2015.

According to the Ministry of Coal (MoC) communique, the IMC also deliberated that Coal India would also be required to present an auction calendar for the next 2-3 years on a rolling basis.

It was also discussed that since different economics govern different industries, sector-wise quantities to be allocated through linkages should be earmarked within the coalfields.

Washing of coal was felt could be done either by procurer or CIL itself but a representative from the latter present at the meet said that under the present framework, washing is done by the procurer and this may be continued till CIL’s washeries were developed.