Coal India registers 31% growth in despatch under e-auction platform

Coal India Ltd has registered 31 per cent growth in despatch under the five e-auction windows at 77.4 million tonne (mt) during April-December 2021, compared to 59 mt same period last year.

Special forward e-auction, which is the exclusive window meant for power sector, accounted for nearly 28 mt of the total despatched quantity.

Coal supplied under other e-auction outlets, where predominantly non-regulated sector customers access coal, accounted for 49.5 mt. Under this category, CIL logged a growth of 21 per cent compared to 41 mt of same period last year and a two-fold increase over 24.4 mt of comparable period during 2019. 

The company has booked a total of 83.7 mt of coal under its five e-auction categories during April-December 2021, which is marginally higher as compared to 81.4 mt during corresponding period last year.

According to a senior company official, even if CIL were to book the same quantity of coal in e-auctions during the fourth quarter of the current fiscal that it did during same quarter previous fiscal, which was 42.6 mt, the company would still sail past the record high e-auction allocation of 124 mt achieved in 2020-21. 

Higher realisation

It is to be noted that a higher sale through auction route would help the company garner better profitability as the average price realisation is usually better than the sale through FSA (fuel supply agreement) route.

The premium over notified price in e-auctions increased almost four-fold to 58 per cent during April-December 2021 compared to 15 per cent of same period last year.

Coal sold through e-auction route accounts for around 15-16 per cent of the total volume of coal sold.

Depending on the demand situation, CIL injects a reserve price, which is basically the floor price, over and above the notified price, at which the auctions begin. This is done based on the kind of response received at e-auction and the amount of premium garnered. An improvement in premiums over notified value is expected to boost the company’s bottom line.

The volume increase in supplies under e-auction was achieved even though CIL pumped an all-time high of almost 391 mt of coal to thermal power plants during April-December 2021, clocking over 23 per cent growth, the official said. The despatch to power sector stood at 317 mt for same period last year.

CIL’s total off-take scaled up to 482 mt during the first nine months of the fiscal in progress registering a year-on-year growth of 18 per cent as compared with 410 mt in April-December 2020.

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