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Domestic
No new coal plants needed to meet 2030 demand
India does not require additional new coal capacity to meet expected demand growth by financial year 2030, according to a report prepared by EMBER, an independent British energy think-tank, in collaboration with Bangalorebased Climate Risk Horizons.
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According to the report, which was released recently, even if India’s power demand grows 5 per cent annually, in line with the most optimistic International Energy Agency projection, coalfired generation in the financial year 2030 will be lower than in the financial year 2020, as long as India achieves its non-coal generation targets – its renewable energy targets. “In effect, more coal capacity beyond what’s already under construction isn’t needed to meet the aggregate demand growth by FY 2030,” says the report, adding that the development of new coal plants will lead to “zombie” units – ones which will exist, but not be operational.
Union Minister Pralhad Joshi has said that the Ministry of Mines is contemplating an amendment to the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act to bring about tangible reforms in the mining sector of the country.
He urged the mining sector to increase the contribution of the sector to the country's GDP to 2.5 per cent and also urged the states to be proactive in auctioning mining blocks.
The Minister called upon the states that received the mining block reports to act on them without any delay to make the auction process faster. He asked the Ministry of Mines to make more financial assistance available to the states.
Noting that a proactive approach by state governments can bring about tangible reforms in mining, he said that despite having the fourth largest coal reserves, India is still importing thermal coal.
Govt relaxes green norms for projects connecting mines
The ministry has, however, cautioned that all forest clearance proposals for mining shall have an additional column for the project proponent to certify that they have critically examined the mineral extraction pathways and that no new extraction path outside the mining area shall be proposed during the next five years.
Roads, conveyor belts, railway infrastructure etc. that connect mines to ports or other destinations can now be considered as standalone projects that can be approved by the regional offices of the union environment ministry, the ministry said in a letter to state governments.
The State Government/User agency shall ensure that dispensation considered by the Ministry is not misused in any way and likely tendencies to detach linear projects from the main proposal of mining should not be encouraged. To the extent possible, linear infrastructure such as roads/railways/conveyor belts, etc. ancillary to mining should be included in the main proposal and under inevitable circumstance only, such proposals submitted by the user agency should be considered as standalone projects,” a government statement noted.
CIL urging power houses not to regulate coal intake
State-owned CIL has been writing to power generating companies since October last year urging them not to regulate the intake of coal and build up stock at their end, so that the electricity production does not suffer during summmer and monsoon seasons, according to official sources.
The development assumes significance in the wake of power houses in the country grappling with coal shortages. “CIL has been writing to power gencos (generation companies) since October 2020 not to regulate intake of their coal and build up stock at their end, so that generation do not suffer during the summer and monsoon season of 2021-22 due to coal shortage,” one of the sources said. Coal India Ltd (CIL) had last week said it has stepped up the supply of coal to the power sector in the first eight days of the current month, with an average of 1.39 million tonnes (MT) per day, clocking a growth of around 20 per cent yo-y..
CIL to step up spending to boost production, dispatches
State-owned Coal India Ltd, which has estimated a capital expenditure of about 17,000 crore for FY22, envisages to spend more in the coming years to boost production and dispatch levels. CIL’s capex stood at13,284 crore in FY21. According to Pramod Agrawal, Chairman and Managing Director, CIL, coal would continue to play a lead role in the country’s electricity generation as indicated by the consumption pattern.
The company’s capex saw a twofold increase to 1,840 crore during the first quarter of FY22, compared to the same quarter last year as it continued to step up investments in evacuation infrastructure, land acquisition and procurement of heavy equipment. Procurement of heavy earth moving machinery,
plant and other machinery that help in ramping up output through OC (opencast) mines typically accounts for a major share of the capex followed by investments in strengthening evacuation infrastructure like setting up rail sidings and corridors, coal handling plants, (CHP), silos and haul roads.
Coal shortage deepens in India amid plunging plant inventories
India’s massive fleet of coal plants are running dangerously low on stockpiles, which may force the nation to buy expensive shipments of the fuel or else risk blackouts.
Stockpiles have fallen to the lowest since November 2017, data from the Central Electricity Authority showed. The South Asian nation isn’t alone in facing a fuel crisis. Buyers from the U.K to China are grappling with energy shortages as a rebound in demand outpaces supply. As inventories dry up, plants may be forced to buy expensive imported coal or pay hefty premiums at domestic auctions, said Debasish Mishra, a Mumbai-based partner at Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu. That may raise costs across an economy that’s already battling high petroleum fuel prices. “A sharp rise in post-pandemic electricity demand is straining fuel supply chains across the globe,” said Mishra. “India has done well to expand its power generation capacity, but has failed to give similar attention to coal supply infrastructure.”
Supply to power plants carrying stock of 0-6 days prioritised: Coal India
State-owned CIL has said it has launched a multi-pronged effort to help build up coal stocks at power plants, and stressed that supply to the electricity units carrying stock of zero to six days has been prioritised by preparing a contingency supply plan to increase their stock. The statement assumes in the wake of the country's power stations grappling with depleting stocks at their end. "Launching a multi-pronged effort to help build up stocks at power plants, CIL has offered coal on 'as is where' basis through rail-cum-road mode from sources where high stock is available.
"Twenty-three such mines carrying 40.3 MT (million tonnes) of stock as of August 16 were identified," Coal India Ltd (CIL) said in a statement. Supply to the power plants carrying stock of zero to six days has been prioritised by preparing a contingency supply plan to increase their stock, it said.
Coal India plans to increase prices 'slowly'
Coal India Ltd is planning to increase the prices of coal slowly after considering the views of all stakeholders, the state-run miner's chairman said, as Asian coal prices hit all-time highs. Asian coal prices from exporters Australia and Indonesia, and the most-traded thermal coal futures contract on China's Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange touched record highs recently due to robust power consumption. "We cannot increase the price of coal abruptly. It can only be increased slowly, and that we are planning (to do)," Coal India Chairman Pramod Agrawal told shareholders at the company's annual general meeting. The world's largest coal miner, which accounts for over 80per cent of India's output of the fuel, last raised coal prices in 2018, and is generally not aggressive with pricing.
Coal India’s pending overdues drop from Rs 22,000 crore to Rs 16,000 crore
Coal India’s (CIL) overdues from gencos have come down to Rs 16,840 crore as of August 31 from Rs 22,000 crore at the start of the fiscal, an above 65%% recovery in last five months.
The company’s director finance, Samiran Dutta, replying to queries at the 47th annual general meeting said overdues were reducing and were expected to considerably reduce before the end of the second quarter, the current fiscal. Rajasthan, Karnataka, West Bengal and others had huge pending overdues and CIL had to restrict supplies to mount pressure on the state gencos, which resulted in coal shortage at the plant head.
CIL launches software for better assessment of coal resources
State-owned CIL said it has launched a software which will help in identifying thin coal seams under the earth crust and improve assessment of resources of fossil fuel using seismic survey during exploration process. The launch of software assumes significance as the present seismic survey techniques for coal resource exploration have their limitations in identifying the thin coal seams under the earth, which will now be possible as this new software helps in enhancing resolution of seismic signals leading to delineation of thinnest coal seams.
CIL's research and development (R&D) arm Central Mine Planning and Design Institute (CMPDI) has developed this first of its kind software in association with Gujrat Energy Research and Management Institute (GERMI) and the company will also file for its copyright protection.
Coal Project enhances Green Cover under Mission Mode
Even as the notion is that coal mining degrades land, new projects of Coal India Ltd. (CIL), under the Ministry of Coal not only reclaiming land to its original shape but also enhancing Green cover along with Coal Mining activity. Emphasis is to have simultaneous back filling of land after opencast Coal Mining operation and dense plantation thereon to maintain environmental equilibrium. Out of many such greenfield projects, one of the largest project of CIL, Jayant Opencast Coal Project in Singrauli District of Madhya Pradesh is forging ahead with a mission of looking beyond coal mining with land restoration & enhancing green cover day by day. This has helped in lowering down the effect of pollution substantially & has also helped in increasing Carbon offset. The project is under Northern Coalfields Ltd. (NCL), a Subsidiary of CIL.
During a detailed review of environmental & forest clearance of Jayant Project by Secretary (Coal), Ministry of Coal in New Delhi, the satellite data of the project presented by NCL revealed more Green cover than the pre-mining forest cover, which is an outstanding achievement for any mega Coal project operating in large leasehold area.
Non-power sectors seek government help for adequate coal supply
A coal shortage has triggered panic in nonpower industries like aluminium, steel, cement and paper with companies claiming they are left with an average 4-5 days’ stock and that coal despatches by rail have been stopped. Companies and associations have written to coal minister Pralhad Joshi and coal secretary Anil Jain. Uttar Pradesh minister Kapil Dev Aggarwal has also written to Joshi, representing paper manufacturing units in Muzaffarnagar that have fuel agreement with CIL’s Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), alleging that there is a complete diversion of coal rakes to power sector.
Industry executives said the panic has set in due to the fact that captive power plants attached to aluminium smelters need to operate continuously. If there is a power cut for more than two hours, the molten metal starts freezing and it takes up to four months to restore normalcy. Another official said on account of default in
payment by the thermal power plants, coal rake despatches to non-power industries were increased irrespective of their consumption and storage capacity. These industries had to cancel their rakes due to storage issues.
MCL records highest 102 rakes coal dispatch in single day
Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) , a subsidiary of Coal India Limited, has recorded the highest ever coal despatch by rail-mode, with 102 rakes chugging from Ib Valey and Talcher Coalfields to various power stations in a single day.
Mr PK Sinha, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, MCL has complimented the teams involved in achieving the record despatch through environment-friendly rail-mode.
“It is an impressive performance by the Team MCL, with equally great coordination and support from Indian Railways,” said Mr Sinha, congratulating all the team leaders and their teams for their work with great sense of responsibly to meet energy requirements of the Nation.
Recording the highest ever 61 rakes despatched from Talcher coalfields, MCL, on August 30, 2021, supplied 5.3 lakh tonne coal to consumers, including more than four lakh tonne coal to the various power stations.
Commerce Ministry for extending anti-dumping duty on certain steel products
The commerce ministry’s arm DGTR has recommended the extension of anti-dumping duty on imports of certain steel products from countries like China, Japan and Korea to protect the domestic industry from cheap inbound shipments.
In separate notifications, the Directorate General of Trade Remedies (DGTR) has recommended the duty after conducting a sunset review investigation on the imports of ‘cold rolled/cold reduced flat steel products of iron or non-alloy steel or other alloy steel of all width and thickness – not clad, plated or coated from China, Japan, Korea and Ukraine.
It has also suggested extension of the duty on imports of hot-rolled flat products of alloy or non-alloy steel from China, Japan, Korea, Russia, Brazil and Indonesia.It concluded that there is a likelihood of continuation and recurrence of injury to the domestic industry if the existing duty is removed.On both the products, the directorate has recommended the continuation of anti-dumping duty on imports.
STEEL
India's steel output expected to jump 18% to 120 MT in FY22: MoS Steel
India's crude steel output is expected to soar about 18 per cent to 120 million tonnes (MT) by the end of the ongoing financial year, Minister of State (MoS) for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste said.
The demand is expected to cross 100 MT during the current financial year, he said.
According to official data, the country produced around 102 MT steel in the financial year 202021, registering a fall of 6.1 per cent over FY20, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the lockdown necessitated to contain its spread.
"India's production of crude steel was at 37.527 MT, a growth of 44.6 per cent, in April-July 2021. This gives me confidence that we will produce around 115 MT-120 MT in FY 2021-22," Kulaste told PTI sharing his estimates for the current financial year.
High coking coal prices are likely to impact gross margins of steel mills, says India Ratings and Research (Ind-Ra).
Accordingly, coking coal prices were up 5 per cent MoM and 103 per cent YoY to $222 per MT in mid-August 2021.
Australian coking coal prices are receiving support from a strong demand from Asian countries, ex-China. The limited availability of prompt coking coal cargoes for near-term deliveries due to logistical issues, including freight and container unavailability and high freight rates, could support coking coal prices over the near term.
While China's imports are from ex-Australia suppliers, these countries are not likely to be able to bridge the supply deficit, especially when the domestic consumption within these ex-Australia supplier countries is also increasing with resumption in economic activities, further restricting supply.
CEMENT
Ambuja Cements has launched Concrete Futures Laboratories, a one-stop solution for the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) professionals. Eight laboratories across India will enable them to test various aspects of cement and concrete.
CEO Neeraj Akhoury said "Our strong credentials in research and development and innovation have helped us develop new products and services tailored to our customers' needs. We consistently work towards developing cuttingedge solutions for our stakeholders, and the Concrete Futures Laboratory is a testament to our efforts. We aim to create an ecosystem that is focused on collaboration and inclusive growth to build a better and sustainable tomorrow."
Cement companies to invest up to Rs 1,700 crore in waste heat recovery system to save power cost
Major cement companies will invest up to Rs 1,700 crore in two fiscal years ending March 2022 to set up 175 MW of waste heat recovery system (WHRS) capacities for saving power cost, an Icra report said. It takes an investment of up to Rs 8-10 crore to set up one MW WHRS, and the overall cost for the 175 MW for FY21 and FY22 will come at Rs 1,400-1,700 crore, it said.
The agency said domestic cement companies in recent years have been investing in alternative/renewable energy sources, replacing known sources such as fuel in the form of coal as well as thermal power generation which has afforded the players multiple benefits apart from reducing carbon dioxide footprint.
The usage of renewable sources of energy such as solar energy, wind energy and WHRS has been gaining momentum, in particular the latter has emerged as one of the cheapest sources of power generation given the negligible input costs. manufacturing is an energy intensive process and power and fuel accounts for 25-28 per cent of the overall costs for a cement company, it said
