Coal news and updates

Rake shortage affecting coal supplies to non-power sector

July 8: Insufficient availability of rakes is affecting supply of imported coal lying at various ports to consumption points and, in turn, leading to a higher waiting period for vessels at such ports, industry sources said.

“At present, Indian Railways is providing rakes only for movement of coal meant for power sector and as such a lot of cargo of sectors like cement and sponge iron are piling up at various ports,” officials of at least two steel company and one cement company said.

“Because of less movement of coal from ports like Dhamra, Mundra etc, new vessels arriving at the port are unable to unload their cargo and as such waiting period has gone up significantly,” the officials said.

“Not only the supply of imported coal, but that of domestic coal too has suffered, mainly to non-power consumers, due to the diversion in rakes for carrying coal to the power sector,” they said.

“In a way, there is a shortage of coal for non-power sector companies due to less number of rakes available at present,” said one official.

“The current situation is likely to continue at least till the on-going Session of Parliament.  At this point, the government cannot afford to face the Opposition’s ire for its inability to supply sufficient coal for power generation,” the official added.

Incidentally, the newly-elected NDA government at the Centre had to witness lot of protests and dharnas immediately after it came to power following disturbances in electricity supplies in Delhi, the capital of India, for which insufficient coal supply was blamed.