Coal news and updates

High dependence on coal imports to persist

Amid an improving trend in domestic coal production and the measures being taken by Coal India Ltd to augment domestic coal output, rating agency ICRA has said that the dependence on coal imports is likely to remain high in the near to medium term (till FY19) and moderate gradually after that, due to the overall challenges in coal mine development along with risk of delays in ramping up of coal output by the allottees of schedule II and schedule III mines.

The agency in its power sector report said that the aggressive bidding in coal e-auction by the winning bidders has led to risk of significant under-recovery and concerns on the viability of their operations. As such, overall, domestic coal productions have gone up 7 per cent in 2014-15. Subsidy dependence, the report said, during the current financial year for state-owned distribution utilities is likely to remain high, as per ICRA’s estimates.

source: http://indianexpress.com