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Informist, Monday, Mar. 3, 2025

 

KOLKATA - Prices of coal auctioned by Coal India have remained flat sequentially so far in Jan-Mar, said Vinaya Varma, chairman and managing director of mjunction Services Ltd., which owns the platform on which around 60% of Coal India's coal is auctioned. Buyer participation, however, has seen an improved, he said.

 

mjunction is a joint venture between Tata Steel Ltd. and Steel Authority of India Ltd.

 

Varma said consumer demand was muted as there was surplus coal in the country compared to demand, and prices "have softened" because of this.

 

"It is very difficult to say what prices are going to be in the auctions in April-Jun as it will depend on many factors. However, there has been an increase of 1,200 new registrations from companies to participate in the coal auctions, which led to increased participation," Varma told the media at the Indian Coal Markets Conference.

 

According to a company official, on an average, mjunction auctions around 3 million tonnes of coal every month, of which 2 million tonnes is booked by consumers. Booking refers to consumers placing bids successfully at auctions.

 

During Oct-Dec, Coal India auctioned a total of 19.2 million tonnes of coal, up 3.5 million tonnes on year. The average price realised at the auctions was INR 2,671 per tonne, down by INR 650 per tonne on year.

 

Coal India has renewed its contract with mujunction till February 2027, with a clause to extend it by another year, Varma said.

 

mjunction, he said, is looking to expand its international business, and the contribution of international operations revenue to total annual sales is expected to double to 20% in the next two-three years. "We are also exploring to start operations at GIFT City," Varma said.

 

Apart from auctioning coal mined by Coal India, mjunction also provides an auction platform for commodities such as steel, steel scrap, fly ash, tea, and 20 other commodities.

 

At 1323 IST, shares of were 0.2% higher at INR 137.43 per share, those of SAIL were 0.7% higher at INR 105.73, and Coal India's shares were down 2.7% at INR 359.20 per share on the National Stock Exchange.  End
 

IST, or Indian Standard Time, is five-and-a-half hours ahead of GMT

 

Reported by Avishek Rakshit
Edited by Avishek Dutta

 

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