In a reply to the steel industrys complaints that paucity of coking coal was ripping through their bottom line,the coal ministry has said that steel utilities have been ignoring about 1.8 Million Tonne of the fuel idling at various pitheads for the past one year. The coal ministry has warned that it would be compelled to auction off the coal unless the steel ministry acted expressly on the matter. In a letter,dated August 10,to the steel ministry,the coal ministry said its unit Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and Eastern Coalfields Ltd (ECL) has about 1.8 MT of coking coal lying on the pitheads of its different opencast mines,which is primarily aimed at catering to the needs of the steel industry. But the utilities are not lifting the full quantity being mined by BCCL because of their own constraints. As such,the unused coking coal was prone to spontaneous heating and catching fire if it is not offtaken in time, the ministry said. This leaves us with no option except to e-auction to other than steel makers to avoid ecological hazard, a top coal ministry official said. Accordingly,its subsidiaries,BCCL and ECL,may soon formally begin the process. According to the letter,the BCCL and ECL had urged several steel plants to execute MoUs with them in June,2010. Some of the steel makers responded,of whom,only Tata Steel is currently lifting the coking coal. The steel ministry has now swung into action and has shot off letters to all major producers asking them to explain why they werent entering into MoUs with coal companies despite surplus stocks lying at their pitheads. Among those who have been asked to explain their position include SAIL Chairman CS Verma,Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd AP Chaudhuri and others. They (steel makers) tell me that paucity of coking coal is ripping through their bottom line. I am told that the prices of this grade of coal has touched about $300 a tonne. We are actually on the verge of chalking out a coking coal policy, steel secretary P K Misra told The Indian Express. The coal ministry has already determined the price of the proposed e-auction in case it is formally given the go-ahead.
