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Informist, Friday, Apr. 10, 2026

--Coal India: To absorb higher cost of explosives, industrial diesel 

--Coal India: Some subsidiaries have reduced coal reserve price in e-auction 

--Coal India: Raised number of auctions, quantity of coal offered in auction 

KOLKATA – The world's largest coal miner, Coal India Ltd., Friday said it is absorbing higher input costs as a result of the US-Israel combine's war on Iran and will not pass on the incremental costs to coal consumers. 

Usually, power prices for consumers go up if coal producers like Coal India, which has a 70% market share in India, raise prices. This is because thermal power, generated from coal, comprises 70% of the total power consumed in India. 

In a statement, Coal India said the cost of ammonium nitrate, which constitutes around 60% of the material composition in manufacturing of explosives, increased 44% to INR 72,750 per tonne in April from pre-war level of INR 50,500 per tonne. As a result, the average cost of explosives shot up around 26% to INR 49,783 per tonne as of March-end from INR 39,588 per tonne in February. Annually, Coal India's mining subsidiaries consume around 900,000 tonnes of explosives, which is used to blast and expose coal seams in its opencast mines. Prior to the West Asia crisis, ammonium nitrate prices were steady for Coal India.

Prices of industrial diesel also shot up. In most of Coal India's subsidiaries, the price of industrial diesel increased around 54% to INR 142 per litre as on Apr. 1 from INR 92 per litre in mid-March. During 2025-26 (Apr-Mar), Coal India consumed a total of 419,000 kilolitres of industrial diesel. 

"The company is also compensating the increased price of the industrial diesel to the contractors, operating in Coal India's mines, who purchase it in bulk quantities," the Maharatna company said in the statement. 

While production costs continue to mount, some of Coal India's subsidiaries have reduced the reserve price of coal in e-auctions. Coal India intends to supply the dry fuel at an affordable price to citizens to cap the consequent costs, the company statement said.

For the December quarter, Coal India reported a net profit of INR 71.57 billion on a revenue of INR 349.24 billion. At 1434 IST, shares of Coal India traded nearly 4% down at INR 435.35 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 Tanima Banerjee

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