Ennore Coke Limited, a domestic manufacturer of metallurgical coke is looking to acquire a 90 per cent stake in Broughton coal mines of Australia valued at about $12 million and having estimated reserves of 30 million tonnes of coking coal.
Ennore Coke aims to pick up stakes in overseas coal mining assets as valuations of these properties were attractive in the aftermath of the economic downturn. The company was looking at achieving security of coking coal to cater to its growing requirement of the raw material to meet its expansion plans.
Ganesan Natarajan, president and chief executive officer, Ennore Coke said, “We are looking at picking up a 90 per cent stake in Broughton coal mines of Australia, which is currently valued at about $12 million, but we expect the valuation to drop further to $7-8 million soon. Ennore Coke would invest an additional $25-30 million on mining operations of these mines.”
Natarajan pointed out that earlier Rio Tinto was in the race for the acquisition of Broughton coal mines but the global mining giant backed out later due to the prevailing economic turmoil.
Earlier, Ennore Coke had identified 3-4 coking coal properties in Australia for acquisition. It was also exploring the possibility of picking up stakes in coking coal assets in New Zealand.
At present, the coking coal requirement of Ennore Coke stands at 7,20,000 tonnes per annum.
The company’s coking coal requirement was set to go up significantly in the next couple of years as it planned to set up a one million tonne per annum coke plant at the upcoming Dhamra port in Orissa at an investment of about Rs 1,400 crore. The plant which is expected to be operational by the end of 2010 would have a coking coal requirement of 1.3 million tonnes per annum.
It was also aiming to scale up the capacity of its 1.5 lakh tonne per annum coke plant at Haldia (West Bengal)to 3 lakh tonnes per annum.
The company has targeted to import about four lakh tonnes of coking coal, mainly from Australia in 2009-10 out of which 50 per cent would be for semi-soft coking coal and the remaining 50 per cent being premium hard coking coal.
Ennore Coke was close to clinch the annual coking coal contracts with its international suppliers like BHP Billiton and Anglo Coal of Australia. The company would import semi-soft coking coal in the range of $115-120 a tonne and premium hard coking coal at about $128 a tonne, which is in tune with the prevailing international prices.
