COAL INDIA LAUNCHES A SPECIAL CATEGORY OF E-AUCTION FOR COAL IMPORTERS

Coal India Limited (CIL) has launched a special category of e-auction of coal for those companies and traders which import coal to meet their requirements. This is done to support the government’s declaration to bring down coal imports to zero.
According to Coal India Limited Any coal buyer, who imported coal during the current and any of the last two financial years, is eligible for participating in this new version of e-auction.
The minimum bid quantity is fixed at 25,000 tonnes for a company that uses road transportation. For those using rail transportation, it is 50,000 tonne, which is equivalent to 12 rakes. One rake is equivalent to 59 rail wagons.
The company said customers can bid for further incremental quantities of coal if they so require.
“This move is a bid to realize the government’s thrust on reducing coal import dependency of the country under the Aatma Nirbharta plan. It would also open a new avenue for our coal companies to step up their sales,” said a Coal India Limited executive.
The e-auction would take place on the website of MSTC Limited and Mjunction Services Limited. Coal India Limited will soon announce the auction calendar for August 2020-March 2021 period, said the executive.
The company executive said Coal India Limited is on a “mission mode to substitute imported coal with its own to step up its supplies”.
“In the process, the company has identified domestic coal-based power plants and non-power sector consumers largely made up of sponge iron, cement, captive power producers, fertilizers, steel and others who are importing coal as potential customers. These segments of customers have imported around 150 million tonnes of coal during the last fiscal,” said CIL.