Coal Dealers in  India

The 5 Types of Coal Dealers in India

Coal is an important source of energy for India 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 that despite concerns around global warming, our government is refusing to let the coal industry die without a credible & feasible long-term phase out plan. In fact, the government of India has communicated even to the United Nations that coal will remain a steadfast pillar supporting the Indian economy for the coming decades. 

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 and a freer coal economy than what we see today. This is apparent by the various market friendly policy decisions taken by the Modi government:

  1. Continuous auctions on rotational basis of coal mines for commercial mining with market linked pricing. More mines are continuously added to the existing pool and auctions are being continuously being held by the government to keep investor interest strong thus bringing in FDI to the space.
  2. They’ve recently allowed captive mines to sell 50% of their production in open market. This has the potential to unlock more availability of the fuel to the industry thus increasing supply sources and hence deepening the market.
  3. We’ve seen more and more coal being sold by Coal India Ltd via the auctions route. This has resulted in the company realising much better market linked prices, thus not having to subsidize energy to industries via long term, under-priced linkages, which sell their product on market linked prices, often making a killing.

Last 5 Awarded Deals

Coal TypeCountryPortVessel/MineQuantity
Thermal CoalIndonesiaNavlakhi Port4800 GAR +/- 100
Thermal CoalRussiaKandla Port6100 NAR +/- 100
Thermal CoalIndonesiaNavlakhi Port4800 GAR +/- 100
Thermal CoalRussiaKandla Port6100 NAR +/- 100
Thermal CoalIndonesiaKandla Port5200 GAR +/- 100

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 partially by domestic mines operated by government-controlled Coal India and rest almost 25% via imports from various countries across the globe. Our major importing partners include Indonesia, South Africa, USA, Australia, and Russia. 

Curiously this huge market is divided into smaller clusters, peppered across the country in different, usually independent pockets. These smaller markets are characterized by different properties: 

  1. Geographical Location:

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, constitutes of handling and transportation costs, thus making it very sensitive to its location of mining and final consumption. 

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. Nearness to the ports has thus been a common characteristic of many coal trading hubs like Gandhidham in Gujarat or Vishakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. 

Nearness to domestic mines, which are mostly located near the central, eastern and south eastern parts of the country have been a prominent characteristic of domestic trade hubs like Kuju mandi in Jharkhand or Raniganj in West Bengal. Some clusters are also seen near industrial consumption centres, where end user industry is concentrated like Mandi Gobindgarh in Punjab or Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh. 

  1. Origin of Coal:

Coal from different origins is used in a variety of applications across the country. 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 to produce power. Steel rolling mills in Mandi Gobindgarh and Ludhiana in north and Telangana in south use it for heating applications. It is used by boilers in dyeing industry across Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan as a suitable, low sulphur, replacement to 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 industries across India. There are some smaller mines in Gujarat & Rajasthan also, which produce lignite, consumed by local industries like bricks, dyeing etc.

Taken in various permutations & combinations, these characteristics result in 5 distinct types of coal dealers which are as follows: 

  1. Miner: 

In India, Coal India Limited (CIL) is the major mining company. It operated via its numerous subsidiaries including: 

  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. There are also captive mines allotted to various end user companies including power plants, cement plants, steel companies etc, which are now allowed to sell up to 50% of their production in open market. 

          2. Importer:

These are large trading concerns with big banking limits and often have overseas presence as well. They import from other countries, taking advantage of pricing differentials. 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.

          3. Distributor:

They are large traders with a monthly traded volume greater than 20 KT. They often buy from importers getting leverage of up to 10 times their immediate capital investment. Their major targets are mid-sized end consumers and traders. 

          4. Mid-Sized Trader:

They are companies with volumes below 20 KT/month. They usually deal with small traders and directly with end consumers. They provide various value adds including transportation facilities, short term credit facility and quality assurances.

          5. Small Trader:

These are small companies, usually located near to the consumption centres. They cater to 10-20 SME’s at any given time and provide various services including transportation facilities, short term credit facility and quality assurances.