- Write by:
-
Friday, November 26, 2021 - 12:30:55
-
653 Visit
-
Print
Mining News Pro - Coal India Ltd., the world’s largest producer of the fuel, said rising costs mean it’s “inevitable” that it will be forced to hike prices of supplies in long-term deals to protect profitability.
According to Mining News Pro - The state-run company is facing pressure from high diesel prices and an increase in salaries of employees due retroactively from July. The higher costs threaten to eat into investor returns and potentially hinder its investment in mines and logistics infrastructure.
The “coal-price increase is something where we have to bring all stakeholders on board. That process is on,” Chairman Pramod Agrawal said on a conference call, adding the recent coal crisis delayed the plan. “Everybody understands that we have reached a point where coal price increase has become inevitable.”
The Kolkata-based miner consumes almost 1.3 billion liters of diesel annually to run its operations, Finance Director Samiran Dutta said on the call. Profit for the quarter ended September missed expectations, partly due to higher costs including a provision for the salary increase.
Coal India last raised prices in 2018. The fuel accounts for nearly 70% of the nation’s electricity generation, so the impact of higher prices can resonate through the economy.
The company’s shares are up about 17% this year, on course for their first annual gain since 2014. Expectations of a price increase and prospects of coal continuing to be a dominant energy source in India despite climate challenges have boosted investors’ sentiment.
Despite a recent spurt in demand for coal, the miner is cautious over longer-term plans. It has pushed back a plan to reach 1 billion tons of annual output by a year and is now targeting that milestone by the year ending March 2025, provided there’s enough demand, Agrawal said.
“We can’t produce coal and keep it,” he said.
Short Link:
https://www.miningnews.ir/En/News/617150
Copper traded near $10,000 a ton, hitting a new two-year high on its way, as investors continue to pile in on a bet that ...
Adriatic Metals is taking over as the operator of the Rupice deposit development, which is part of the company’s Vares ...
A Russian arbitration court ruled on Monday that four units of Swiss commodities trader Glencore will pay more than 11.4 ...
A prefeasibility study for Predictive Discovery’s (ASX: PDI) Bankan gold project in Guinea gives it a net present value ...
China’s state planner on Friday finalized a rule to set up a domestic coal production reserve system by 2027, aimed at ...
Iron ore futures prices drifted higher on Thursday as the latest soft data from top consumer China triggered renewed ...
The world’s coal-fired power capacity grew 2% last year, its highest annual increase since 2016, driven by new builds in ...
Peabody Energy Corp. shares sunk to the lowest in seven months after the biggest US coal miner warned that first-quarter ...
Polish government is abandoning plans to separate coal-fired power plants into a special company and is considering ...
No comments have been posted yet ...