JUNE 20239India's Ministry of Coal stated that the country has increased the production of coal by 47 percent across the last nine years. India's supply of coal has risen by 45.7 percent in this achieving more than 877 million tonnes.The country has set a target of producing 140 million tonnes of coking coal by 2030.A statement from the Ministry of Coal stated: "It is expected that 25 coal mines will be allocated during FY 2023­24 for commercial mining."In 2021, the Indian Government announced `Mission Coking Coal', a plan to enhance metallurgical coal production in the country. The Ministry of Coal stated, "Mission Coking Coal has made recommendations majorly relating to new exploration, enhancing production, enhancing washing capacity, auction of new coking coal mines." It has two tenets: "1) Enhancing coking coal production from 52 Million Tonne (MT) in FY 2022 to 140 MT in FY 2030. 2) Enhancing coking coal washing capacity from 23 MT in FY 2022 to 61 MT in FY 2023." Because domestic coked coal has a very high ash concentration, it must be washed for usage in blast furnaces.Mining Technology parent company GlobalData's estimates from 2022 suggest that 5­7 percent of all coal produced in India was metallurgical coking coal, an essential component for usage in blast furnaces. This has forced India's construction industry to rely on imported coke in its production. As part of the Indian Government's strategy to achieve self-reliance, coking coal production is being pushed. By comparison, global coal production only grew by 0.9 percent in 2022, of which India produced a major share; 12.7% of coal produced worldwide in 2022 was coking coal. Gail India intends to borrow up to Rs.7,000 crore in FY24 to pay for the Rs.10,000 crore planned capital expenditures for this fiscal. The chairman and managing director of the state-owned corporation, SK Gupta, stated, "For this fiscal, we plan to spend Rs.10,000 crore." In spite of FY23's poor performance in terms of internal resource creation, he said, it invested Rs.9,100 crore, or 15 percent more than had been planned.He radiated assurance that FY24 will be strong in terms of internal resource generation and that there would be no issue with continuing the capex. He continued, "We intend to borrow somewhere between Rs.5-7,000 crore. RK Jain, the director of finance for the corporation, stated that given the current state of international finance, home markets will be used for borrowing rather than international ones. According to him, a quarter of the borrowings will be in bonds and the remaining three will be from banks in accordance with the Sebi order. The new bank borrowings would have a period of more than five years, and the company now has a total long-term debt of Rs.9,800 crore. Currently, he continued it is trying to raise Rs.1,500 crore in the domestic market. Gail has reportedly filed a lawsuit against Russian energy giant Gazprom for failing to provide liquefied natural gas in the wake of the challenges brought on by Russia's invasion of Ukraine, according to Gupta. We have filed an arbitration request with the London court in order to pursue specific performance against them and recover damages, according to Gupta.Gupta added that the business will consider all options, including tie-ups, before making a significant attempt to enter the market for solar energy components. Additionally, it is confident in starting up a green hydrogen production in 2023. Although the ideas are still in the conceptual stage, the corporation is thinking about investing in the ethane cracker. Gupta claimed that because oil and gas businesses can access the necessary funding from the markets, it will not be considering pipeline monetisation. INDIA DECLARES 47 PERCENT COAL EXPANSION OVER LAST NINE YEARSGAIL TO BORROW UP TO RS.7,000CRORE DOMESTICALLY TO FUND RS.10,000 CRORE CAPEX PLAN IN FY24TOP STORY
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