Archive for category: Coal

The ongoing coal shortage has begun affecting other segments besides power plants and the railways, with the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries (FIMI) stating on Wednesday that aluminium makers are seeing an adverse impact on their refinery and smelting operations. The reason, FIMI Secretary General R K Sharma said, is that these manufacturers are unable to run their captive power plants due to the coal shortage. The low availability of railway rakes is exacerbating the issue, he added.

According to FIMI, coal is usually allotted to primary aluminium smelters by Coal India Ltd (CIL) or its subsidiary through linkages by way of FSAs (fuel supply agreement). “However, both aluminium smelters and refineries being under non-core category, the supply of coal to aluminium sector is severely affected due to priority given to core sectors by CIL,” it claimed on Wednesday.

The industry body also noted that it had earlier requested the coal secretary to include the aluminium sector in the core category to ensure regular coal supplies, but no relief has been given yet. The industry had already faced an acute coal shortage in September 2017 due to restricted supply to non-core sectors.

Source: THE NEW INDIA EXPRESS

Coal India arm BCCL suffered Rs 95 crore loss due to blending inferior grade coal with superior steel quality dry-fuel, the government auditor CAG has said. Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL), one of the fossil fuel producing subsidiaries of CIL, is engaged in mining, washing and distribution of coal to meet the energy requirement of its consumers and produces both coking and non-coking coal.

“Steel grade coal is precious, fetches higher revenue and can be used directly by consumers in the steel sector. Due to relatively low ash content, it does not require washing. However, BCCL blended steel grade coal with inferior washery grade coal in its four washeries, instead of supplying the steel grade coal directly to customers and earning higher revenue,” the CAG has said in its latest report.

This has resulted in loss of Rs 95.09 crore to the company during 2013-14 to 2015-16, worked out on a conservative basis, it said.

Coking coal having less than 18 per cent ash is termed as steel grade coal, which can be used directly by consumers in the steel sector.

Coal having higher ash content (18 per cent to 35 per cent) is termed washery grade coal and requires washing to make it suitable for use in production of steel.

During 2013-14 to 2015-16, BCCL fed 26.33 lakh tonnes of coking coal into its four washeries by blending 13.91 lakh tonnes of steel grade coal with 12.42 lakh tonne washery grade coal, which finally yielded only 6.64 lakh tonne of washed coal (25 per cent) along with middling, slurry and rejects, it said.

The government auditor pointed out that this was done by BCCL despite having a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Tata Steel and SAIL for supply of raw steel grade coking coal.

The company was to supply 25 lakh tonnes of raw coking coal to Tata Steel in 2013-14, which it could not supply, it said.

BCCL had also agreed to supply 12 lakh tonnes of steel grade raw coking coal to SAIL during 2014-15 to 2015-16, against which the company could supply only 1.02 lakh tonne, it said.

The yield of washed coal, even after blending of steel grade coal, was abnormally low during 2013-16, when compared to prior and subsequent periods, CAG said, and recommended for a critical review of the output to assure that the interests of the company have not been compromised.

Source: PTI