Coal India Limited (CIL) logged a strong 77 per cent growth in e-auction sales in April-November of the ongoing fiscal,under five windows, booking 68.3 Million Tonnes (MTs). The upsurge in the booked or allocated quantity of coal was close to 30 MTs,in absolute terms, compared to 38.6 MTs booked during same period a year ago. Indicating increased appetite from non-power consumers, exclusive auction for this sector booked 17.4 MTs which is 25.5 per cent of the total allocated quantity during the referred period. Compared to 4.8 MTs booked by non-power consumers during April-November’19 the growth is more than a three and half fold or 262 per cent.
E-auction sales for November’20 not only witnessed improved volume bookings at 9.4 MTs, clocking 23.7 per cent growth last November but CIL could also net 30 per cent premium over the notified prices.
This is a big leap from the 13 per cent premium the auctions fetched in October’20 when CIL for the first time in the present fiscal introduced add on over the notified price, after a six month hiatus, to gauge the market response. Considering the market response to e-auctions there is a strong possibility that the bookings could go over 100 MTs in the current fiscal.