Coal news and updates

CIL to chalk out 2015-16 coal import plans soon

February 19: Coal India Ltd (CIL) has initiated discussions with power generation companies and is likely to finalise its 2015-16 coal import plans by March-April, a senior official from the company told ICMW.

“We will chalk out import plans for the next financial year in March-April. We have already sought the requirement volumes of imported coal from power plants but only some have responded so far. The details are likely to be available in the next few weeks,” the official added.

The official pointed out that CIL had made some commitments to power utilities for supply of imported coal and as per that it will have to take their consent for supplying the imported material.

“There is sufficient time to chalk out a strategy for coal imports in the next financial year,” the official added.

Asked how much imported coal the company has supplied so far in 2014-15, the official said there is still some shortage in supplies and it is likely to be bridged by March.

“We expect that we will end up supplying around 4.5 lakh tons of imported coal in 2014-15. The initial tender was for about 5.6 lakh tons but after deduction for some quantity, the balance is likely to be about 4.5 lakh tons,” the official said.

The deduction was on account of various reasons such as non-materialisation of tenders of some companies like CESC because of low quantity as it was not possible to bring in such a small shipment, he explained.

Besides CESC, another consumer which had committed to procure imported coal through CIL was facing some problem and had requested for deferment of supplies.

“This year that particular consumer had some problem related to taxation with the state government. After the taxation issue is resolved, only then it will give us the green signal for the supply of imported coal,” the official added.