Coal Buyers in Varanasi

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Coal in the Indian economy is like carbs in our body. Coal buyers in Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi, 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi or by power plants.

With any Coal buyers at Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi, 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 Varanasi

Varanasi is a district in Uttar Pradesh, India, with Varanasi city serving as the district headquarters. It’s also known as Kashi. It is one of the sacred pilgrimage sites for Hindus and Buddhists, according to Hindu and Buddhist legends. Lord Shiva, Parvathi as Vishwanatha, and Vishalaakshi are said to stay there to bless worshippers. Mirzapur district, Jaunpur district, Ghazipur district, Chandauli district, and Bhadohi district are all located around it. The district is bisected by the Ganga (Ganges) river. Hindus believe it is a sacred and clean river that has the power to wash away sins when people bathe in it. The district is part of the Varanasi division and covers 1,535 square kilometres (593 square miles), with a population of 3,676,841 according to the 2011 Indian Census.

Varanasi district has a population of 3,676,841 people, according to the 2011 census, which places it 75th in India (out of a total of 640). The district’s population density is 2,399 people per square kilometre (6,210 people per square mile). Its population grew at a 17.32 percent annual pace from 2001 to 2011. Varanasi has 909 girls to 1000 males sex ratio and a literacy rate of 77.05 percent.

Traditional etymology connects the name “Varanasi” to the names of two Ganges tributaries that constitute the city’s borders: Varuna, which still flows in northern Varanasi, and Assi, which is now a minor stream near Assi Ghat. The historic city is bordered by Varuna and Assi on the north bank of the Ganges.

The city is referred to as Kashi in the Rigveda, an ancient Indian holy collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns, from the Sanskrit verbal root ka- “to shine,” making Varanasi regarded as the “luminous city as an eminent centre of learning.” Pilgrims dating back to Buddha’s time used the term. Varanasi is referred to in Hindu holy writings by a variety of epithets, including Kik, Avimukta, Nandaknana, and Rudravsa.

Varanasi has a humid subtropical climate with significant temperature differences between summer and winter. The dry summer begins in April and lasts through June, with the monsoon season beginning in July and lasting until October. Summer temperatures range from 22 to 46 degrees Celsius (72 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit). Varanasi’s winters include a lot of diurnal variances, with warm days and bitterly chilly nights. During the winter months of December to February, cold waves from the Himalayan area cause temperatures to drop across the city, with lows of 5 °C (41 °F) not unusual. The yearly rainfall averages 1,110 mm (44 in). In the winter, fog is widespread, whereas in the summer, scorching dry winds known as loo blow. The Ganges’ water level has dropped dramatically in recent years, perhaps owing to upstream dams, illegal water exploitation, and declining glacier supplies due to global warming.

Varanasi is largely Hindu, with Islam constituting the largest minority. Hinduism is practised by over 70% of the population. Different religions, including as Christianity, Sikhism, Jainism, and Buddhism, are also represented in the city. The city is also a Buddhist pilgrimage centre. After reaching enlightenment, Buddha offered his first teaching in Sarnath. As a result, the Buddhist community in the area has swelled.

Varanasi is recognised as the “microcosm of India” in India’s holy geography. Varanasi contains 12 churches, three Jain mandirs, nine Buddhist shrines, three Gurdwaras (Sikh shrines), and 1,388 Muslim holy places in addition to its 3,300 Hindu sacred sites.

This vast quantity of coal is getting delivered to a large number of coal buyer and coal consumer industries in Varanasi, across wide variety of sectors. This distribution of coal buyers and coal consumers industries in Varanasi 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 Varanasi, 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, Varanasi Port, Ennore Port, Karaijal port in Tamil Nadu, Krishnapatnam port, Vizag 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi. 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi. 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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 Varanasi 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.