Coal news and updates

CIL supplied only 16.34 mt washed coal in 2014-15

Despite having a capacity to wash as much as 36.8 million tons (mt) coal annually through the existing 15 washeries at its various subsidiaries, Coal India Ltd (CIL) supplied only 16.34 mt of the washed variety of the fuel to the country during the year 2014-15.

That means, capacity utilisation of existing washeries of CIL was only about 44%.

According to a government official, the total despatch of coal by CIL during 2014-15 was 488.862 mt, of which only 16.34 mt or 3.34% was sent to the washeries.

Further, of the 16.34 mt washed coal which was supplied in 2014-15, only 11.006 mt was non-coking while the balance 5.334 mt was coking coal, the official said.

Despite such a discouraging performance, mainly due to the unwillingness of consumers to use washed coal and also because of CIL’s tendency to despatch as much coal as possible, the company (CIL) is planning to set up 15 new washeries with a total installed capacity of 112.60 mtpa.

Industry veterans feel that even if the utilisation rate of the proposed washeries, once they are operational by end-2017, is increased to 50%, CIL might not be able to wash more than 75 mt of coal annually.

Even if only 75 mt of washed coal is transported by rail, there is a possibility of huge savings in transportation costs to the country, considering the fact that there will be lesser transportation of ash, which is considerably higher in Indian coal, they said.

Indian coal, on an average, has ash content of 40% and after washing, it may be brought down to 30%.

Going by this assumption, the actual saving in transportation costs by way of lesser movement of ash would be around 30% over and above the existing (transportation) cost, they said.

Source: ICMW