 "Coal India")
State-owned CIL on Monday said its e-auction sales registered a growth of 52.5 per cent at 21.5 million tonne (MT) in the first two months of the ongoing fiscal year.
CIL's total allocated quantity under the five auction windows was at 14.1 MT in April-May 2019-20, the coal behemoth said in a statement.
"Coal India's (CIL) e-auction sales are beginning to look up as the company posted 52.5 per cent growth, in auction bookings, during the first two months of the ongoing fiscal," the statement said.
The company's total allocated quantity this fiscal year till May 2021 moved up to 21.5 MT, under the five auction windows, it added.
With the demand for coal gathering steam, CIL could garner 16 per cent add-on over the notified price during April-May compared to seven per cent of same period last financial year.
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To encourage coal consumers lift additional coal quantities, reserve price under all e-auction windows was kept at par with notified price during the first six months of the last fiscal year.
The upward trend in the allocation was primarily driven by non-power sector which evincing a healthy appetite for the dry fuel accounted for 50 per cent of the total booked quantity of 21.5 MT.
Under 'exclusive auction for non-power', this sector booked 10.8 MT during the period under review, posting 77 per cent growth against 6.1 MT in the year-ago period.
E-auction booking by power sector consumers also logged a robust 49 per cent growth at 6.1 MT under 'special forward auction' meant exclusively for them. Allocation during April-May last fiscal year was 4.1 MT.
"Though there is a revival in supplies to power sector, our concern is that there is still a bit of vacillation in the demand. We hope it stabilises soon," the company said.
Auction allocation under 'spot auction' window where all coal consumers including coal traders could participate, also clocked 35 per cent growth ending May at 4.6 MT.
CIL scripted an all-time high of 124 MT in e-auction sales in 2020-21 posting 88 per cent growth over the preceding year.
"Hopefully, if the demand regains stability we aim to surpass the last year's mark with increased add-on over the notified price without letdown on supply commitment to power sector and non-power sector," the company said.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
