ChinaCoal to cut coal price on rising supply expectations
China National Coal Group Corp (ChinaCoal), China's second-largest state-owned coal producer after Shenhua Group, will cut its thermal coal price by 10 yuan ($1.48) per tonne from Thursday, as it expects rising coal production to ease prices, a government newspaper reported.
ChinaCoal expected overheated coal prices to cool after the government's latest measures to speed up output hikes to alleviate the shortage, while coal shipments and inventories at ports and users have been rising, China Reform Daily reported late on Wednesday.
The newspaper is owned by the National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC), the country's economic watchdog. Industry sources said the cut will only be imposed for physical settlement based on the Bohai-Rim Steam-Coal Price Index.
The marginal cut is seen by industry sources as the first sign that coal producers may be falling into line with the NDRC, which has urged coal miners to sign long-term deals with utilities at a fixed price to ensure supplies and avoid a big hike in residential power costs.
Top coal miners including Shenhua have declined to reach an agreement with power generators to set the prices for their 2017 long-term supply contracts at prices below market levels.
China's thermal coal prices on the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange edged lower by 0.5 percent to 634.8 yuan a tonne by 0248 GMT.
However, open interest for the benchmark contract stood at 469,648 lots, not far off a record level hit on Monday. Traders had been expecting prices to go higher, but are waiting for clearer signals on any potential policy moves.
The unexpected coal supply shortage and recent price spike followed moves by the Chinese government to slash capacity and shut coal mines as part of its efforts to tackle overcapacity.
($1 = 6.7592 Chinese yuan renminbi) (Reporting by Ruby Lian and Josephine Mason; Editing by Richard Pullin)
http://in.reuters.com/article/china-coal-price-idINL4N1D41DB
Centre backtracks on coal mining by pvt sector
Come April, the Centre would stop importing coal for state-run power producers. It has also put on hold the plan to award blocks to the private sector.
With the abundance of coal and little demand, the government has decided not to import any coal for any state-run power PSUs (public sector undertakings) after the current contracts expire.
Poor demand has also made government go back on its earlier decision to award blocks to the private sector for commercial mining, coal secretary Anil Swarup said.
"We have done a very detailed analysis of how to handle imports and strategies related to power and non-power sector. In power sector, we have engaged with each of the PSUs. By 31st March, imports by PSU power utilities would be zero. There will no imports thereafter," Swarup said while addressing members of MCC Chamber of Commerce.
Public sector power producers imported 35-40 million tonne coal.
"By end of this year, we will reduce imports by 15 million tonne.
There is unit-by-unit strategy to cut imports," the secretary said.
The ministry is also looking at how to encourage private sector including industries like steel to replace better quality imports by poor quality domestic coal.
"In power, there are boilers suited for imported coal. We are exploring how to mix domestic coal with imports for such plants. Similarly, we are trying to do it for deregulated sectors. We have engaged with SAIL, RINL and others on how to provide the coal they are importing."
While the PSUs are being told not to import, for the private sector, the availability of coal is being increased through auctions.
"With international prices firming up, there is a chance that this coal would get picked up. We are assuring the supply of coal for private sector, while earlier there was only spot auction, now there is availability throughout the year."
Apart from curbing imports, another fallout of excess coal availability is the disinterest in promoting commercial mining by private sector.
"The ground work (for commercial mining) has been done but because of good work being done by Coal India, there is not much demand for mines as there were hardly any demand in the fourth round of auction," Swarup said when asked about prospects of commercial mining.
Earlier this year, the government opened up commercial mining in India by allocating 16 mines with an estimated annual capacity of 40 million tonne to various states.
According to a recent report by BMI Research, an arm of global rating agency Fitch, India may continue to suffer from deficit in coal requirement due to delays in opening up of commercial mining to private sectors and slow approvals for new state miners.
http://www.dnaindia.com/money/report-centre-backtracks-on-coal-mining-by-pvt-sector-2270038
Coal shortage may worsen if PLF rises 7%
The present stock positions of coal could spiral into a national shortage if power plants raised their capacity utilisation even by a small 6-7%, coal secretary Anil Swarup said here on Thursday. Nevertheless, coal imports by all state-owned power generation companies would stop from April 1, 2017, he said.
“At present, the coal stock situation looks like there is surplus coal. However, it is not enough to give coal to everyone and we are not fully comfortable about making coal available to everyone at this level of stock position,” said Swarup.
However, spot and forward e-auctions are an effort to supply as much coal as possible without disrupting supplies. Swarup was speaking to reporters at a seminar on India’s Coal Sector – Vision 2020 organised by the MCC Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Coal imports by state-owned power companies is slated to decline by 15 mt this year from about 40 million tonnes in 2015-16, he said. “We have discussed separately with every public sector power company and have made sure that imports turn zero from April 1, 2017 onwards,” he said.
NTPCBSE 1.50 % is by far the largest public sector coal importer and it has reduced imports drastically from a peak of about 16 million tonnes a few years ago to a couple million tonnes this year. The company has not placed fresh import orders this year and all its coal imports in 2016-17 have been delivery of orders placed in previous years.
While coal stocks at power plants receiving coal from Coal India have an average stock of 15 days, there are some 57,000 mw of thermal units starved for coal since they do not have any supply contract from Coal India
Coal allocation for MSME to go online
In a significant development related to the allocation of coal to Micro, Medium and Small Enterprises (MSME), the Andhra Pradesh Government has decided to migrate to an online system through its Single Desk Portal (SDP) to consolidate its standing in the ease-of-doing-business indicators. As per a G.O. issued in the name of Commissioner for Industrial Promotion Solomon Arokiaraj on Thursday, the SDP will ensure authenticity of transactions through digital signatures and one-time password-based authentication.
The number of documents to be uploaded will be minimised and with it comes a provision for self-certification by the industrial units.
At present, the applications for allocation of coal are submitted physically by industrial units along with supporting documents in the offices of the General Managers of the District Industries Centres (DIC) in the form of hard copies.
The District Industries Promotion Committees scrutinise the proposals backed by the inspection reports of the DICs. Recommendations are then made to the Director/Commissioner of Industries for coal quantity over and above 100 metric tonnes per month.
The proposal to move to an online platform (route the applications and processing of allocation through the SDP) is in continuation with the business reform action plan targeted at technology-driven improvements in government procedures.
The new system facilitates quicker and easier processing of the applications and allocation of coal. It will come into force from the date of hosting of the online software application for ‘Raw Materials (Coal) Allocation’ on the SDP.
The A.P. Mineral Development Corporation (APMDC) is the nodal agency for supply and distribution of coal to the MSMEs from the Mahanadi Coal Fields, which gets its allocation from the Coal India Limited, from 2012-13 to 2017-18.
Now, a PF app for Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation members
The Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation (CMPFO) has said it has developed a mobile application to enable its members view PF balance and functions.
"A Mobile App has been developed by CMPFO on which CMPF members can view their PF balance, claim status and grievance status. The existing Web Portal of CMPF had been given a facelift with improved facilities for viewing their claim status, account status, downloading self-certified life certificate format and status of grievance," CMPFO commissioner B Panda said in a statement.
He said coal secretary Anil Swarup in a review meeting has urged the CMPFO to keep focus on the issues of computerisation of CMPF, financial status of pension fund, seeding of Aadhaar card number.
The organisation said after seeding of Aadhaar with CMPF account number and direct transfer of pension benefits to the pensioners, the present system of collection of life certificates through 14 nationalised banks will be dispensed with and the service charges to the tune of Rs 26 crore a year to the banks will be saved, which is more than one fourth of the annual administrative expenditure of CMPFO.
Warm Regards
Anurag Singal
Sr Manager –Business Development
Essel Mining & Industries Ltd
14th Floor, Industry House
10,Camac Street –Kol-71
Ph: 033-30518415
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