Coal India to explore Bangla market with MMTC

03 October 2016

Coal India will work with MMTC to assess the demand for coal in Bangladesh. The move comes as part of the public sector miner’s initiative to explore export opportunities in the neighbouring markets.

Coal India will send a team to Bangladesh to evaluate demand, especially in power.

Dhaka has worked out an ambitious programme to create 40,000MW capacity in 15 years with more than half of the planned addition in thermal power. Bangladesh generated 13,734MW last year, including captive sources.

“Bangladesh has worked out a capacity addition programme and thermal power forms a major part of that programme. Coal India will evaluate the demand-supply scenario and work out the export opportunities,” a CIL official said. The team might visit the neighbouring country as early as this month.

Supply glut

The decision to explore export options comes at a time of stagnating demand in the domestic market in the first half of the fiscal.

Both the power plants and Coal India are working on plans to manage the inventory.

In the April-August period, production grew 1.3 per cent, while offtake was only 0.2 per cent higher than the previous year. However, CIL officials as well as market observers remain optimistic about stocks coming down in the second half of the fiscal.

Exports to Bangladesh could also provide an opportunity to explore supply options to the 1,320MW plant being set up at Rampal in Khulna.

“While it can present an opportunity for Coal India, there is still some time before the project gets commissioned. So, we would take a holistic view of the market and not just projects,” the official added.

Core fund

Buoyed by the interest shown by global investors, the government plans three more sector-specific sub-funds, including airports and ports, under the Rs 40,000-crore National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), reports PTI.

The government last week announced that it was in the process of setting up two sub-funds – one in clean energy and another for highway projects.

The NIIF was set up in December as an investment vehicle to fund viable projects, including stalled.

Observing that there were certain challenges with regard to the NIIF, economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das had last week said investors were more interested in investing in specific, sectoral funds rather than multi-sector umbrella funds.

Source – The Telegraph