Coal India ended up selling most of the linkages offered to captive power producers. Linkages are long term assurance for supplies.
According to a company spokesperson, at the end of the eight day auction ending on Wednesday, CIL sold linkages worth 18.07 million tonne (mt) annual supplies. This is against a total offering of 18.86 mt.
Coal from majority of the sources (mines) was sold at a premium of upto 10 per cent the notified price of fuel. CIL failed to get adequate buyers for linkage auction to sponge iron and cement.
Meanwhile the company maintained 4 per cent growth in production during April-July period, amidst low demand for fuel. Coal sales or off-take grew by a mere 2.6 per cent during the period.
Coal India liquidated 12 million pit-head stock during the period. This is lower than 15 mt stock liquidated during the same period last year.
Considering the company started with a higher inventory there is accretion in pit-head stock, despite a slow down in production.