Coal news and updates

Shree Cement planning to shift to Indonesian coal

October 13: Shree Cement Ltd, which had emerged as a leading user of US steam coal in recent years, is believed to be in talks with a few Indonesian miners to procure single mine coal for its consumption in 2015, sources told ICMW.

“Shree Cement has initiated talks with some Indonesian miners, but nothing concrete has emerged so far,” sources said.

According to information available with ICMW, Shree Cement had purchased around 1.5 million tons of US steam coal in 2013-14, a part of which was re-sold by the company to brick kiln-makers in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan.

Some in the industry believe that Shree Cement is booked for its steam coal and pet coke requirements till December 2014 and may be toying with alternative sources to check if the cost could be reduced by using Indonesian coal.

The company was using US steam coal because it found the per calorie price of such coal lower due to the inherent high calorific value of US coal as compared to coal from any other countries, sources said.

On September 23, ICMW had reported that a leading cement-maker, which was till now importing steam coal from the US, was working to find an alternative source from other supplier countries to procure off-spec coal.