By Jacqueline Cowhig
LONDON, April 24 (Reuters) – The world’s largest coal miner,
Coal India (CIL), has been discussing importing up to
15 million tonnes of thermal coal with suppliers, but there are
numerous obstacles to overcome before a tender can be issued,
supplier sources said.
“Coal India is clearly under a lot of pressure to make up
the shortfall in its own output but a lot needs to be covered
before they can import,” one Delhi-based source said.
CIL would have to revise the terms and conditions of its
previous, cancelled tenders, because these were unacceptably
imbalanced in its favour, potential suppliers said.
CIL is looking at a tender which would require suppliers to
offer to individual power plants on a delivered to plant basis,
a requirement likely to dissuade some large coal producers,
suppliers said.
“Previous tender documents were onerous and one-sided,” one
supplier familiar with CIL’s cancelled tender said.
Producers including Peabody and Xstrata did
offer into CIL’s cancelled tender but more may be tempted if the
terms and conditions are more attractive.
India has been plagued by power shortages due to a lack of
fuel, because it has not been able to produce enough of its own
coal or import at target levels.
Continued…
