Coal news and updates

CIL spot e-auction sales down 22% in 2014-15

April 28: After rising continuously for the last 5-6 years, the offerings and allotments of coal by Coal India Ltd (CIL) through the spot e-auction route registered its first decline in 2015-16, largely on the back of a curb imposed by the Ministry of Coal last year.

The government, in June 2014, had directed CIL to restrict its offerings through the e-auction platform to 25 mt in a year after it was found that a number of power plants in the country were facing low coal stock levels.

The government order was relaxed from October 2014 onwards after the coal stock situation at power plants started improving due to higher production by the company and lower generation by plants due to comparatively lower demand.

The total allotment or sale of coal by CIL through spot e-auction fell by 21.57% to 45.59 million tons (mt) in 2014-15 as compared to 58.13 mt in 2013-14, according to provisional data available with ICMW.

The offering during the year, on the other hand, was reduced by 26.29% to 50.76 mt in 2014-15 from 68.86 mt in 2013-14, the data revealed.

The total value of allotted quantity as per the notified price was Rs 6,839.75 crore in 2014-15, down from Rs 9,281.04 crore in 2013-14 while the value of the bidding price was Rs 11,186.71 crore and Rs 12,767.06 crore respectively.

CIL had earned additional revenues of about Rs 4,350 crore in 2014-15 by selling coal through spot e-auction. The figure stood at around Rs 3,500 crore in 2013-14, but was higher at Rs 3,711.92 crore in 2012-13.

This shows that while the gain through the higher bidding price in 2014-15 was 63.55% over the notified price, the same was 37.56% in 2013-14. In other words, by offering lesser quantity in 2014-15, the company had managed to raise the realised price per ton in 2014-15.

As far as forward e-auction is concerned through which coal is sold only to consumers by the company, the trend was almost similar as both the offered and allotted quantities were reduced in 2014-15 as compared to the 2013-14 figures.

The total offered quantity under forward e-auction in 2014-15 was 5.89 mt, down from 7.88 mt in 2013-14, but the allotted quantity was down to 3.59 mt from 4.09 mt in 2013-14, the data revealed.

In March 2015, the last month of 2014-15, both the offered and allotted quantities under spot e-auction were significantly higher compared to March 2014.

The offered quantity under spot e-auction in March stood at 6.72 mt, up from 5.99 in March 2014 and the allotted quantity stood at 5.75 mt, up from 5.19 mt same month last year.

Similarly, under forward e-auction, the offered quantity in March 2015 stood at 3.27 mt, higher from 2.02 mt in March 2014 and the allotted quantity stood at 2.60 mt as compared to a low of 0.91 mt in March 2014, the data revealed.

The following table contains the quantity of coal (provisional data) allotted by CIL via the spot e-auction route during 2014-15, 2013-14 and 2012-13:

# Figures may not tally due to revision in data made by CIL for prior period.