State-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Wednesday said it is optimistic of closing the current financial year with auction bookings of 120 million tonnes (MT).

 CIL’s concentrated efforts to book increased volumes of coal under e-auction to bolster sales revenue, especially in view of the narrowed margins in add-ons during the COVID-19 pandemic period, paid off with the company scoring a strong 76.2 per cent growth during April-December of the current fiscal, the PSU said in a statement.

 "Encouraged by the buoyancy in its e-auction coal sales, CIL is optimistic of closing the current fiscal with auction bookings of 120 million tonnes (MT). It would be the highest ever since coal sales began under the auction hammer," the PSU said.

 The auction sales have surpassed the company’s previous estimates and the company said that it is sure of allocating 120 MT of coal by the end of the current fiscal.   

 The PSU booked 81.4 MT of coal under five auction windows progressive up to December of the current fiscal, displaying a robust 35.2 MT volume expansion compared to 46.2 MT it booked during the same period a year ago.

 Beginning October, CIL introduced special spot auction for coal importers, under which it had already booked 7.3 MT in three months.Apart from increased volume bookings, premium over notified price has been gaining steadily since October with CIL as whole netting a 15 per cent premium during April-December. Among the subsidiaries, Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) clocked the highest 40 per cent increase over the notified prices with Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) and Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) registering 23 per cent and 22 per cent, respectively.The company has identified specific mines in ECL, BCCL, CCL and SECL from where the response has been positive in e-auction and there is potential for further increase, the company said.