Coal news and updates

Eleven years after its first big mining privatisation, the Afghan government has abruptly cancelled the contract, highlighting the unpredictable nature of investing in a sector seen as crucial to the country's economic development.

 

The Ghori factory in northern Baghlan province is the country's only significant cement producer, and the four million tonnes of cement Afghanistan imports each year is a heavy drag on its aid-reliant economy.

 

As one of the largest selloffs since the Taliban fell in 2001, it is also a barometer for doing business in Afghanistan, where the conflict with Islamist militants already makes it a daunting place to invest.

 

The government says it was not properly notified about a change in ownership at Ghori last year, and the company owes it millions of dollars in unpaid taxes and fees since it was privatised in 2006.

 

"This is a very big legal concern," said Zabihullah Sarwari, a spokesman at the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.

 

He said authorities were informed of the sale of the original shareholdings only once it had gone ahead, and had not met or approved the new owner by then.

 

Demand sputters, thermal plant load at 10-year low

During the first three quarters of the current fiscal, the operating requirement of coal and lignite thermal power plants — the mainstay of India’s electricity grid — has dipped under the 60 per cent mark, a 10-year low.

Government estimates for the April-December, 2016, period show the average Plant Load Factor (PLF) of the thermal power stations in the country has slid to a decadal low of 59.64 per cent (it was 61.58 per cent during the corresponding period last fiscal). Reason: sluggish industrial load resulting in the projected demand for electricity trailing the pace of commissioning of new power projects, alongside a pick-up in the addition of renewable projects to the country’s energy mix.

Reflecting the sharp slide in the GDP growth rate from the near double-digit growth ten years back to current levels of around 7 per cent — a result of industry operating at far lower than optimal capacity and the private sector’s continued reluctance to make fresh investments — the PLF of the thermal power stations in the country has been seeing a steady dip, down from 78.9 per cent in 2007-08 to 62.29 per cent about in 2015-16.

The consistent dip in the load factor — a broad measure of a power plant’s output during a period of time as compared to its maximum output — is a consequence of the capacity addition growing at 13.7 per cent annually in the three years to 2015 even as consumption grew at a measly 6 per cent. The slide is evident in the numbers, considering that the national average PLF of coal and lignite-based power generating stations has come down from 73.32 per cent in 2011-12, 69.93 per cent in 2012-13, 65.55 per cent in 2013-14 and 64.25 per cent in 2014-15, before slumping further to 62.29 per cent last fiscal.

Interestingly, during the first quarter of the current financial year (April-June 2016-17), the PLF had actually improved to 63.4 per cent, before dipping in the subsequent two quarters to take the average for the three quarters to under 60 per cent, largely due to a good monsoon season.

Source:Indian Express