Coal India Gets 18 Bids For 360 mt Imports.

Coal major to shortlist and strike a deal within five months.

State-run Coal India Ltd (CIL), has got 18 tenders from international companies for long-term thermal coal offtake agreements. The Maharatna company will shortlist and strike a deal from this — based on the price and quantity of coal to be supplied — within five months.

“CIL has got 18 proposals to import about 360 million tonnes (mt) of coal for a period of 10 years . We will shortlist from these, once we finalise the price and the quantity of coal to be imported. It is expected to happen within five months,” Chairman and Managing Director N C Jha said.

The world’s largest coal producer and India’s second largest company in terms of market capitalisation had invited expressions of interest (EoIs) from global companies at a discounted price for long-term offtake agreements early this year. It received 27 proposals from 16 companies and later the PSU had sent them requests for proposal (RFP) and they were advised to give proposals on quality and quantity of coal to be supplied. The last date to submit bids was May 25.

“The deal would be to import coal from four countries — South Africa, Australia, Indonesia and the United States,” Jha added. Though Jha refused to reveal further details about the proposals, an official close to the development said the proposals included some of the global coal giants.

According to reports, the companies which submitted the EoIs included Rio Tinto, Xstrata, Peabody, Massey Energy and Sinarmas.

“Since CIL has already received a demand of 10 mt from NTPC, we are expecting to import some amount of the total 360 mt this financial year only,” Jha said. The company is currently supplying about 125 mt of coal to NTPC on an annual basis, which include supplying for some new plants from March 2011.

According to the memorandum of understanding with the government for the financial year 2011-12, CIL’s targeted production and offtake is fixed at 452 mt and 454 mt respectively. The company has earmarked Rs 10,000 crore as capital expenditure for the current financial year on capacity expansion and acquisitions.

Source : sify.com