CIL’s first auction under common window gets encouraging response, 100% of offered quantity booked
Bhubaneswar : Public sector coal miner Coal India’s (CIL) first ever offer of nearly 5.2 Lakh Tonnes (LTs) of coal under the recently revamped single window e-auction was met with encouraging response from coal consumers with 100% of the offered quantity getting booked. After the merger of earlier multiple auction windows into a solitary outlet, CIL conducted e-auction in two of its subsidiaries on 3rd March 2022.
The entire quantity of 3.2 LTs offered by Northern Coalfields Limited, under the newly structured auction window, was fully booked. Similarly, a little over 1.98 LTs placed under the sole e-hammer by Eastern Coalfields Limited got totally ordered. Following the decision of Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs in the last week of February allowing sale of non-linkage coal through a single e-auction window, only the spot e-auction serves all types of coal consumers now. The consumers from regulated, non-regulated sectors and traders have to vie for coal under one common window. CIL’s offer of e-auction coal is now mode agnostic, which means, the company will not specifically mention transportation mode of coal, ex-colliery.
Earlier, the mode for coal booked under different auctions used to be specified. With rail as default mode the customers, however, have the option to choose their preferential mode-rail or road. CIL had constituted a committee under a General Manager of the marketing and sales division at corporate level to smoothen any crimps arising out of the migration to the modified system and rollout its seamless functioning.
“The big upshot is discovery of true market price for coal with removal of the segmentation. Previously, same coal used to fetch different prices in different e-auction windows. Another point in favour of the new system is increased transparency with all the offered coal placed in a single basket. Hitherto coal companies had the discretion of separate offers for different windows.” said an official of CIL. Further, there will be a level playing field for all consumers with same price structure. Other benefits include elimination of cartelisation due to wider base of participants. As all e-auction coal will be placed in the same basket, the bidder will have more choice and as a result bookings are likely to increase.