Coal news and updates

Rakes shortage cuts pet coke supply from RIL, Essar to 25%

July 30: After being denied adequate supply of coal, cement-makers in India are now suffering from non-loading of pet coke at the refineries of Reliance and Essar Oil, the Cement Manufacturers Association (CMA) said.

“Supply of pet coke rakes from the refineries of Reliance Industries Ltd at Jamnagar and Essar Oil Ltd’s, at Vadinar, to the cement makers’ plants has been severely reduced to 25% of normal supplies due to non-supply of empty rakes at the refineries,” N A Viswanathan, Secretary General, CMA said.

Viswanathan, who has written letters to several ministries, including coal and commerce & industry, further said that the drop in pet coke supplies from these refineries has put many cement units on the verge of closure.

Reliance and Essar are the two major suppliers of the fuel and load, on an average, 90 rakes per month.

Along with pet coke, rake shortage is also affecting movement of imported coal from the Indian ports to the cement plants, he noted.

“Many member companies’ (of CMA) plants, which are dependent on imported coal and indigenous pet coke, have brought to our notice that they are on the verge of closure for want of pet coke and imported coal due to non-allocation of rakes in the last few weeks,” he said.

Due to non-grant of long-term linkages since 2007, some of the cement plants and their captive power plants (CPPs) are entirely dependent on usage of pet coke and imported coal as fuel.

Earlier, the CMA had raised the issue of non-supply of rakes at the Korba Coalfields of SEC Railways which resulted in a critical coal stock position at various cement plants and CPPs.

Pointing out that both the Reliance and Essar refineries are under the area of Western Railways, Viswanathan urged the government to take corrective steps to ease supply of the material and help the cement plants and CPPs keep running.