India to bridge coal import gap by 50% in 3 years: CIL

Kolkata: India is working on bridging the coal import gap by about 50 per cent in the next three years, Coal India Chairman A K Jha said on Friday.

In the 2018-19 fiscal, the country produced 730 million tonnes (MT) of coal, while 955 MT was consumed, leading to a gap of 230-235 MT.

"Coal imports were 235 MT last year. The country cannot avoid imports of around 120 MT due to lack of options... and imports by power plants in the coastal belt.

"We will bridge the remaining coal (115-120 MT), which is imported in the next three years with higher production and better evacuation," Jha said.

He, however, said that availability of land and proper law and order situation are necessary for a "quantam" jump in production.

Jha was speaking at the media briefing for the 8th Asian Mining Congress and IME Exhibition, scheduled to be held on November 6-9.

He said Coal India plans to produce 53 MT of more coal to 660 MT in the current fiscal, and a similar 50-55 MT incremental production every year will bridge the 115-120 MT gap. Coal India had earlier pushed back its 1-billion-tonne production vision to 2025-26.

The miner, which caters to 80 per cent of the country's energy requirement, is also executing rail network from its mine pitheads worth Rs 6,000-7,000 crore for high coal evacuation.

Meanwhile, Coal India on Friday also said that it is optimistic about the company's financial performance despite softening international prices.

Average international coal price has gone down from $75 per tonne to $48 in just a few months.

E-auction price realisation for Coal India was Rs 2155 a tonne, a slump of nearly Rs 600 per tonne in the first quarter ended June 2019, compared to the preceding quarter (Jan-Mar 2019) average realisation of Rs 2754 a tonne.

"Our price is still 40 per cent lower than international prices," Coal India chairman A K Jha said when asked about easing coal prices.

The profit for 2018-19 was Rs 17462.18 crore, up from Rs 7038.44 crore in the previous year.

Coal India was planning to produce 660 million tonne in the current fiscal, an incremental production of 53 million tonne over 2018-19.

However, law and order issues will hold the key for production performance in some of its subsidiaries.

Mahanadi Coalfields and Bharat Coking Coalfields were facing issues related to law and order.

"Issues pertaining to South Eastern Coalfields had been resolved," Jha said.

SECL is the largest coal producing subsidiary of the company.

He expected coal production will increase but monsoon may have some disruptions.

Coal India has also started pushing higher supply to non-power.

Meanwhile, Australia's Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Matthew Canavan, will visit India from 26 -29 August beginning from Kolkata.

He will meet state Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra.