NTPC will need more imported coal in 2014/15

India’s largest power producer, NTPC, will import more coal this fiscal year as it struggles to bridge the gap between its demand and domestic supply.

According to NTPC chairman and managing director, Arup Roy Chaudhury, the utility will use 177 million t of coal – a rise of almost 18.5 million t on the 158.43 million t it used in the 2013/14 period. Imports for last year accounted for 10.39 million t but will have to rise to 17 million this year in order to bridge the gas between NTPC’s demand and domestic supply capabilities.

India’s coal industry has been rocked by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling that coal block allocations for captive mining were illegal. According to Chaudhury, NTPC holds ten such blocks with potential output of 100 million tpa. Following the court’s ruling, however, the future of these blocks is now in doubt, putting more strain on the country’s embattled power sector and rocking investor confidence in the country.

India is chronically short of coal with state-owned coal mining monoply, Coal India, regularly missing its output targets. The mining behemoth recently said that it had again missed its production target for the three months to June 2014.

Written by Jonathan Rowland

Read the article online at: https://www.worldcoal.com/power/28082014/world-coal-ntpc-will-need-more-imported-coal-in-2014-15-coal1258/