Team News Riveting
Kolkata, June 7
Coal India Limited (CIL) had allotted 21.5 million tonne (MT) of coal for e-auction sales, registering a growth of 52 per cent compared to corresponding period of the previous year.
The state-run coal miner had allotted 14.1 MT of coal in the month of April-May in the last financial year.
With the demand for coal gaining steam, CIL could garner 16 per cent add-on over the notified price during April-May’21 compared to 7 per cent of same period last year. To encourage coal consumers lift additional coal quantities, reserve price under all e-auction windows was kept at par with notified price during the first six months of the last fiscal.
The upward trend in the allocation was primarily driven up by non-power sector that evincing a healthy appetite for the dry fuel accounted for 50 per cent of the total booked quantity of 21.5 MT.
Under ‘exclusive auction for non-power’ this sector booked 10.8 MT during the referred period posting 77 per cent growth against 6.1 MT that it booked during comparable period last year.
E-auction booking by power sector consumers also logged a robust 49 per cent growth at 6.1 MT under ‘Special forward auction’ meant exclusively for them. Allocation during April-May’20 was 4.1 MT.
“Though there is revival in supplies to power sector, our concern is that there is still a bit of vacillation in the demand. We hope it stabilizes soon” a senior official of the company said.
Auction allocation under ‘Spot auction’ window where all coal consumers including coal traders could participate, also clocked 35 per cent growth ending May21 at 4.6 MT. CIL scripted an all-time high of 124 MT in e-auction sales in FY’21 posting 88 per cent growth over the preceding year.
“Hopefully, if the demand regains stability we aim to surpass the last year’s mark with increased addon over the notified price without letdown on supply commitment to power sector and non-power sector,” the official added.
