Coal news and updates

Indian consumers’ coal enquiries firm up

February 10: Enquiries for imported coal from Indian consumers, particularly cement- makers, have firmed up in recent days after a period of slightly weak orders in the second and third quarters of 2013-14, said an official with a leading coal trading company.

“Now enquiries are back on track. The fourth quarter of 2013-14 is definitely much better than the second and third quarters in terms of enquiries,” the official said.

Citing reasons for the better scenario, the official said, “Cement companies’ capacity utilisation has increased by 10-15% and this has led to increase in production and consequently increase in coal demand.”

Indian cement companies had been operating at low capacity utilisation of around 50-60% till November-December, 2013, but the recent trend indicates that capacity utilisation of almost all the cement-makers has gone up to 60-70% on the back of increased demand.