Coal news and updates

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Adani Enterprises emerged as the lowest bidder in Coal India’s maiden tender for coal imports. The CIL, which had floated the tender on 8 June, opened the bids on 1 July and received a total of four bids for the tender. The tender was for supplying 2.416 million metric tons of coal, which Coal India would supply to seven state-owned power generation companies and 19 private power plants.

The four firms participating in the bidding included Adani Enterprises, Chettinad Logistics Pvt Ltd, Mohit Minerals Ltd and Bara Daya Energi. However, Bara Daya Energi was rejected due to the submission of invalid power of attorney and non-submission of the consortium agreement.

Among the remaining three valid bids, Adani Enterprises quoted the lowest amount of Rs 4,033 crore. Mohit Minerals was the second-lowest bidder with the quoted amount of Rs 4,182 crore, and Chettinad Logistics Pvt Ltd quoted Rs 4,222 crore.

The states that will receive imported coal for their generating stations are Punjab, Gujarat, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Jharkhand, and Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier on 21 June, Coal India, in a regulatory filing, had informed that eleven coal importers had shown interest in the maiden tender in its pre-bid meeting. A couple of coal exporting agencies from abroad had also shown interest.

NTPC also awarded Adani Enterprises multiple contracts to import 6.25 million tonnes of coal worth Rs 8,308 crore in June.

Besides this tender, Coal India has issued two more medium-term tenders for purchasing imported coal for power-generating companies. The two tenders are for the supply of 3 million metric tonnes of imported coal for the western and eastern regions worth more than Rs 3,850 crore each. These two tenders will be closing for bid submission on Tuesday at 3 pm, and bids will be opened on the same day at 5 pm.

Last month, the power ministry directed CIL to import coal for state and private gencos. This came two weeks after state and privately-owned gencos were told to import coal for 10 per cent blending but were later asked to keep their tenders ‘in abeyance’. 

Several states expressed reluctance to import coal and asked for CIL to arrange the dry fuel from global markets.

India faced its worst power crisis in over six years in April due to higher electricity demand, despite record production by Coal India during the year ended March 2022. India has rolled back a policy to cut thermal coal imports and plans to reopen closed mines to address rising power demand.

The government is rushing to make more coal available for utilities as shortages in the July-September quarter are expected to be 15 per cent wider than initially estimated due to expectations of higher power demand.

Coal India has previously blamed lower output from import-based coal plants, adding that fewer imports put more pressure on domestic mining.