Coal Buyers in Sikkim

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Coal in the Indian economy is like carbs in our body. Coal buyers in Sikkim need the energy source and just cannot function without it, at least for now anyways. Coal is the most widely available, cheap, and densely packed energy source out there that is available locally across the globe and is easy to transport, without needing the complex logistical challenges and infrastructure requirements of either gas or oil. It is the major driver of efficient and economic use for most industries. It is still the strongest pillar for a stable grid electricity supply when compared to almost any other alternate in our modern advanced world.

Coal buyers in Sikkim still requires coal despite of various environmental friendly alternatives. When first used in the steam engine, it was heralded to be at the heart of the industrial revolution and modernization of the world. It is only when coal became widely adopted and coal buyers and users in Sikkim increased, that humanity started to realize its pitfalls. Same has happened with almost all the other alternates like nuclear which is touted as being too dangerous, with scary, long term aftereffects associated with radiation and spent fuel disposal. Renewable energy alternates like wind and hydro have had a hard time too, as even after being treated as nobly as coal by the coal buyers in Sikkim, eventually they have too shown their own limitations when deployed at scale. They tend to change and disturb the local ecosystem of the places where they are built significantly.

Even the much touted solar has unfortunately a long way to go. Limitations include, a large area needed for installation and low efficiencies, which decreases with age. They are productive only during a part of the day. Event this productivity is at natures mercy with cloudy days reducing it, dust covers leading to huge energy consumption in maintenance and abrasion, which erodes the efficiency even further. When deployed at scale, even solar panels have shown to disturb the existing ecosystem by becoming heat absorption sinks in desert locations (where they get the best sunlight exposure for the longest of times), needing to be cooled to maintain optimum performance, again resulting in lower net output. The promising battery technology is still has miles to cover before it comes in to change the narrative.

Biomass or Agri waste is a another alternate of the Indian government as it can be used interchangeably with coal by the coal buyers in Sikkim with little or no processing. It is also locally produced and helps kill two birds (coal induced pollution and Agri waste disposal) with one stone. The challenges here are completely different with seasonality of the input, logistical nightmare of collection and transportation, non-standardized practices in processing and the most important one of aggregation of the lakhs of farmers to be able to provide regular quality in meaningful quantities to entice the industry to make a permanent switch from coal. Recently a policy shift by the government of India has made a definitive shift towards biomass, by mandating a 5% co-firing of biomass pellets with coal within one year, which needs to be ramped up further by coal buyers in Sikkim or by power plants.

With any Coal buyers at Sikkim or at any power plant, coal is burned to produce heat, which is then converted into steam by boiling water (losing almost 60% energy), thus generating electricity by turning massive turbines, then transporting the electricity to end use industries (suffering transmission losses) and where it is used in various equipment for heating purposes. Hence, common sense and economics prevail, and coal buyers in Sikkim take it directly to the end-use industries, where it can be burned in a controlled environment to directly use for the heating requirement, thereby avoiding massive scale of waste while having a smaller carbon footprint for the same application.

Coal is an important source of energy for Coal Buyers in Sikkim and is critical for our energy security. It accounts for around 44% of our primary energy needs and powers around 75% of our entire electricity generation. Coal is so important for Coal buyers in Sikkim despite concerns around global warming, our government is refusing to let the coal industry die without a credible long term phase out plan. In fact, the government of India has communicated even to the US that coal will remain a steadfast pillar supporting the Indian economy for the coming decades.

Coal buyers in Sikkim or we may also say that the Indian economy is so dependent on the black gold, that the government predicts a rise in its consumption by around 50% in the coming years. The government has been steadily making strides towards a more market-based pricing approach in the benefit of coal buyers in Sikkim and a freer coal economy than what we see today. This is apparent by the various market friendly policy decisions taken by the Indian government which will result in a freely flowing coal economy in the coming future:

Continuous auctions on rotational basis of coal mines for commercial mining with market linked pricing for the benefit of coal buyers at Sikkim Mines are continuously being added to the existing auction pool and auctions are being continuously being held by the government to keep investor interest strong in a bid to attract FDI to the space, along with domestic interest.
They’ve recently allowed captive mines to sell 50% of their production in open market. This landmark policy change has the potential to unlock more availability of the fuel to the industry, with market linked pricing thus increasing supply sources and hence deepening the market.
Coal India Ltd has been selling more and more coal being via the auctions route through MSTC and coaljunction. Government through this is hitting two targets with one stone by not having to subsidize energy costs of industries, which sell their product on market linked prices to coal buyers at Sikkim, often making a killing, via long term, under-priced linkages. Secondly, this has resulted in the company realising much better prices and increasing its revenue.

Coal is a massive, 250 Bn $ sector in India. It is almost 10% of the Indian GDP. Our current consumption of almost a billion MT is met mostly by domestic mines operated by government-controlled Coal India Ltd and Singareni Collieries Coalfields Ltd and rest almost 25% via imports from various countries across the globe. Our major importing partners include Indonesia, South Africa, USA, Australia, and Russia.

Last 5 Awarded Deals

Coal Type	Country	Port	Vessel/Mine
Thermal Coal	Indonesia	Navlakhi Port	4800 GAR +/- 100
Thermal Coal	Russia	Kandla Port	6100 NAR +/- 100
Thermal Coal	Indonesia	Navlakhi Port	4800 GAR +/- 100
Thermal Coal	Russia	Kandla Port	6100 NAR +/- 100
Thermal Coal	Indonesia	Kandla Port	5200 GAR +/- 100

All About Sikkim

Sikkim is one of India’s fastest-growing states. Agriculture, horticulture, and forestry are all supported by the state’s favourable agro-climatic conditions. The Central Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, as well as other respected Indian authorities, certified Sikkim as India’s first entirely organic state. Around 5,000 blooming plant species, 515 rare orchids, 60 primula species, and 36 rhododendron species call it home. As a result, it is one of the top states in the northeast in terms of cut flower production and supply to mainland consumers. The state is also known as the world’s largest cardamom centre, producing over 80% of the country’s big cardamom. Sikkim was ranked first in the 2019 Global Childhood Report. Between 2015-16 and 2019-20, Sikkim’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) grew at a rate of 15.86 percent.

Coal Dealers in Sikkim Sikkim had a total installed power production capacity of 677.83 MW as of April 2021, with the central sector accounting for 169.65 MW, state utilities (412.11 MW), and the private sector accounting for the remaining 412.11 MW (96.07 MW). Thermal supplied 105.65 MW, hydro contributed 520.00 MW, and renewable energy contributed 52.18 MW to the total installed power generating capacity. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflow into Sikkim (including West Bengal and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands) totalled US$ 6.35 billion between April 2000 and September 2020, according to the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

Sikkim’s total goods exports were $9.88 billion in FY20 and $9.36 billion in FY21. Drug formulations, biologicals, medical and scientific instruments, grain preparations, and other processed goods made up the majority of the state’s total exports. Sikkim’s total exports of medication formulation products was US$ 4.56 million (49%) in FY21. The central pool of resources for the north eastern region and Sikkim was allotted Rs. 581 crore (US$ 80.14 million) in the Union Budget 2021.

The Indian government and the Asian Development Bank agreed a project readiness financing (PRF) loan for US$ 2.5 million (Rs. 18 crore) in June 2021 to rehabilitate vital district roads in Sikkim. In March 2021, the cabinet authorised a project to boost transmission and distribution in Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim at a cost of Rs. 9,129.32 crore (US$ 1.26 billion).

The government provided money of Rs. 1,100 crore (US$ 151.73 million) to the Sivok – Rangpo project in Sikkim in the Union Budget 2021. The CCI (Competition Commission of India) authorised Greenko Mauritius’ acquisition of a 35 percent ownership holding in Teesta Urja Ltd. in March 2021. Teesta Urja is a special purpose entity set up to build a 1,200-megawatt hydropower project in North Sikkim.

On January 13, 2021, NHPC Limited and Jalpower Corporation Limited (JPCL) signed an agreement for the implementation of the ‘Approved Resolution Plan’ for the acquisition of Jalpower Corporation Limited’s (JPCL) 120 MW Rangit-IV HE Project in Sikkim. In 2019-20, the state’s total horticulture crop production is predicted to be 409.57 million metric tonnes, with 102.71 million hectares under cultivation. The overall output of vegetables and fruits in 2019-20 is expected to be 231.40 million metric tonnes and 55.45 million metric tonnes, respectively.

This vast quantity of coal is getting delivered to a large number of coal buyer and coal consumer industries in Ashoknagar, across wide variety of sectors. This distribution of coal buyers and coal consumers industries in Ashoknagar can be observed based on majorly two factors: location and origin of coal.

Let us pick up locational aspect of the coal buyers first:

Near to the Raw Material

Coal is a cheap commodity (usually). The main part of the costing of coal, which forms up to 90% of the plant delivered cost to a consumer or coal buyer at Sikkim, constitutes of handling and transportation costs, thus making it very sensitive to its location of mining and final consumption. Thus, a large number of price sensitive industries tend to locate themselves nearer to the imported sources, ports or domestic sources, near mines.

a. India is blessed with a very long coastline, 7500+ Km. This gives us a distinct advantage in terms of commerce and the ability to import and export via cheaper sea routes from global sources. As mentioned before almost 25% of our needs are satisfied by imported coal. Some of the prominent coal ports include Mundra port, Kandla port, Tuna port, Navlakhi port, Dahej port, Hazira port, Magdalla ports in Gujarat. Dharamtar port, JSW Jaigadh port in Maharashtra, Marmugao port of Karnataka, Kochi port in Kerela, Haldia Port, Ennore Port, Karaijal port in Tamil Nadu, Krishnapatnam port, Gangavaram port in Andhra Pradesh, Paradip port, Dhaamra port in Odisha and Haldia port in West Bengal.

Large trading concerns with big banking limits and often overseas presence import coal from other countries in to India, taking advantage of pricing differentials between different grades and origins and delivery times. They are mostly present in major cities, and across various ports. They have operations teams to support the evacuation of coal from ports in a time bound manner and cater to the coal buyers in target markets.

Availability of liquidity and low logistics charges have thus been a common characteristic of many coal buyer industries to blossom like Morbi in Gujarat for ceramics manufacturers or steel rolling mills near Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh or sponge iron or direct reduced iron, DRI plants in Odisha.

b. Domestic mines are mostly located near the central, eastern and south eastern parts of the country. They are operated mostly by Coal India Limited (CIL) via its numerous subsidiaries including:

1. 1. Northern Coalfields Ltd, NCL
  2. Central Coalfields Ltd, CCL
  3. Eastern Coalfields Ltd, ECL
  4. North Eastern Coalfields Ltd, NECL
  5. South Eastern Coalfields Ltd, SECL
  6. Western Coalfields Ltd, WCL
  7. Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd, MCL

Apart from CIL, Singareni Collieries Coalfields Ltd, SCCL is also a state-owned coal mining company supplying to the Telangana and Andhra Pradesh markets. Presently, captive mines allotted to various end coal user companies or coal buyers at Sikkim including power plants, cement plants, steel companies etc, have been allowed to sell up to 50% of their production in open market.

These regional supply sources have attracted huge coal buyers like steel industry clusters of Chhattisgarh, ferro alloy manufacturers in West Bengal, aluminium smelters in Odisha etc, apart from smaller industries like dyeing, brick kilns, paper mills etc peppered across the landscape to take the locational advantage of the locally available coal and have set up shop and generated massive employment and created wealth.

Apart from coal other significant raw materials, also become major aspect for locational consideration of clusters for coal buyers at Sikkim. Examples of it can be seen in cement, burnt lime, plaster of paris clusters in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, sugar mills of Uttar Pradesh,

2. Near Consumption Markets

A large number of coal buyer industries in Sikkim are located nearer to the markets they serve. These include food processing and milk processing units in Uttar Pradesh & Haryana, dyeing clusters across Delhi NCR region, leather processors in Uttar Pradesh, brick kilns or bhatta’s across India, paper mills in Muzaffarnagar, Meerut and Punjab.

3. In the historical trade hubs and routes

Many industrial clusters have been historically built along major arterial roads connecting various large cities across India. Due to abundance of labor, easier access to clients and raw material these trade towns and major cities developed into manufacturing hubs having coal buyer clusters in and around Sikkim. Many examples of such coal buyer clusters are in various locations across the country like Indore in Madhya Pradesh, Kolhapur in Maharashtra, Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, Patna in Bihar, Tirupur in Tamil Nadu etc.

Let us now explore the Origin of Coal:

Coal from different origins is used in a variety of applications across the coal buyers at Sikkim These uses vary with industry, its location and nearby supply sources.

Indonesian coal: Indonesia is the world’s largest exporter of coal. With its landscape being criss-crossed by rivers, its location very near to the Indian sub-continent, it is relatively cheaper for us to source coal from here. Hence, it is no surprise that India is its second largest market. Indonesia is the largest source for our imported thermal coal needs. Being complimentary in its physical characteristics to our domestically available coal, Indonesian variety is often used for blending with ours. It is used in a very wide variety of industries across the country.

Coastal power plants have been built specifically to be able to utilize cheaper varieties of Indonesian coal to produce power. Steel rolling mills in Sikkim and Ludhiana in north and Telangana in south use it for heating applications. Indonesian coal is used by boilers in dyeing industry across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan as a suitable, low sulphur, replacement to highly polluting petcoke. Ceramics industry of Gujarat and captive power producers across the country have been using fuel from Indonesia to run their industries.

South African coal: South Africa is another large exporter of coal. India has been its largest market accounting for over 50% of its total exports. Grades of RB1 (6000 NAR), RB2 (5700 NAR), RB3 (5500 NAR) and 4800 NAR are exported from South Africa into India. This coal is used across India mainly by sponge iron makers and ferro alloy manufacturers. It is utilized for its high fixed carbon content almost as a chemical. It directly competes with domestic varieties in south and south-east India.

USA coal: US coal has the best net calorific value of any coal in the world. Originates from the regions of North Appalachian and Illinois Basin in US. It has been a favourite of the brick kiln owners across the entire northern belt of India. Cement manufacturers across the country have used US coal interchangeably with petcoke, a refinery by product, basis on pricing arbitrage, whenever available. Paper mills up north have also been occasional users, whenever domestic coal has been in shortage.

Australian coal: It is mostly used by the cement industry, which act as swing buyers. This has also been often used by power plants across the coastline, whenever there is an arbitrage opportunity.

Indian coal: Domestic coal is mainly mined by Coal India via its subsidiary companies and Singareni Collieries Coalfields Ltd. is mostly consumed within a short distance of the mine itself. These are the source for majority of the coal for coal buyers in Sikkim or rather across India. There are some smaller mines in Gujarat & Rajasthan also, which produce lignite, consumed by local coal buyer industries like bricks, dyeing, ceramics, paper etc.