Coal news and updates

Xcoal brings US steam coal for direct sale in India

December 22: Xcoal Energy & Resources, a leading miner and supplier of US steam coal, has brought two more vessels of high sulphur and high calorific value US origin steam coal for direct sale to consumers in India, industry sources said.

The company had brought in one more vessel before that in November, according to information provided to ICMW by industry sources.

“Xcoal has brought a few vessels but it appears to be finding it difficult to sell the material directly to consumers,” the sources claimed.

“The company had to keep its vessels stranded in international waters for few days on lack of buyers before the two vessels were berthed at Kandla and Mundra ports,” the source said.

ICMW could not contact Xcoal officials for their views.

ICMW understands that high sulphur and high calorific value US steam is generally used in India by a few cement-makers and also by brick kilns but in recent days the former has reduced the consumption of such coal because of the steep fall in petroleum coke prices.

“Cement-makers were using US steam coal as it had found per calorific cost to be slightly lower when pet coke prices were ruling high. But, in recent days, there had been sharp fall in pet coke prices and they are using that,” said another source.

So far as brick kilns are concerned, these players started buying US steam coal since the last two years after there had been disturbances in supply of Indian origin coal of almost similar specification, ie, high sulphur and high calorific value, sources said.

Indian origin coal of such specifications was coming from Meghalaya, but in recent days, there had been severe disturbances in supplies of such material due to regulatory issues, which prompted brick kilns, particularly those based out of Punjab, to procure US coal.

However, industry sources believe that supply of Meghalaya coal might improve in the coming days as a Green Bench of the Guwahati High Court, which has temporarily stopped mining and transport of coal from this north-eastern state, is likely to announce a final verdict soon.

“The court had, some months back, allowed transportation of already mined coal, but a final verdict on whether mining will be allowed or not is yet to come,” an official in the know of the case said.