Coal India needs policy on Coal Export before commercial contract finalization

Coal India wants a policy on coal exports before it could finalize commercial contracts for exporting the dry fuel, a senior CIL official said.

"There is a need for a policy. But, we are not aggressive as we are facing high demand in the domestic market and the initial aim is to fulfill that," the senior Coal India official told PTI.

"We are in process of dialogue for export to Nepal, Bangladesh, and Bhutan to create a market for long term. A very small quantity of coal is exported to neighboring countries through bilateral agreements," he said.

Earlier, the government was planning to export coal with high ash content or of higher grades. Coal India was scouting for an export opportunity at the time when pithead coal stock was high as close to 70 million tonnes in May 2017.

Pithead coal finds comparatively low interest due to evacuation and cost issues. With sudden spiraling demand from the power sector, the pithead stock had reduced to 23 million tonnes now.

In the recent months, the miner was failing to fulfill coal demand for power and non-power sectors like aluminum and cement sector. Coal India had revised its internal production target to 652 million tonnes against 630 million tonnes fixed earlier following pressure from the ministry to increase production.