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Coal India to import 4 m tonnes

KOLKATA: For the first time in its history, Coal India Ltd. (CIL) is set to import coal. This may start with an import of four million tonnes within this fiscal year.

However, CIL, which produces over 80 per cent of the country’s coal, will do so only after getting firm orders, Chairman Partha S. Bhattacharyya said.

Since power sector utilities have not been able to import the coal that they had earlier planned for this year, CIL has been asked to import coal for them, a senior official told The Hindu. He indicated that this was agreed earlier this week after talks between the two ministries and also with Planning Commission officials.

Since this coal cannot be blended, it would be imported and sold as it is. Moreover the price of this coal would be substantially (at least three times) higher than domestic coal.

Further, port charges and CIL’s service charges will be added to the price. “There has to be an assured takeoff and imports will take place only after that,” CIL sources said. The landed cost of international coal is now at about $120 a tonne.

The power sector, which imported about 15 million tonnes of coal in 2007-08, was supposed to import about 20 million tonnes this fiscal and half of it was to have been imported by now. However, until now, it has imported only about eight million tonnes, it was learnt.

Mr. Bhattacharyya told The Hindu that as against an annual action plan (AAP) target of supplying 114 million tonnes to the power sector, CIL has so far supplied 115.16 million tonnes compared to the 110-million tonnes it supplied last year during this period.

For the entire year, the AAP target is about 292.9 million tonnes. However, even if this supply takes place, the power sector would see a 14-million tonne coal shortage, which translates to a 10-million tonne of imported coal supply (in case imports are planned to meet the shortage).

CIL has been asked to help bridge this 10 million tonne gap which it may do through a combination of imports, increased production and drawing from its stocks.

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