(Bloomberg) -- Coal India Ltd., the nation’s monopoly producer of the fuel, has deferred its first-ever tender to import 10 million metric tons of coal, which was to be issued in April, an official said.
Coal India, which plans to sell shares for the first time, may not be able to call for the tender before June as it waits for power producers to confirm their needs, said a company official who declined to be identified, citing policy.
State-owned Coal India, based in Kolkata, West Bengal, also needs clarity on how coal will be transported from the Visakhapatnam and Gangavaram ports on the east coast, where a shortage of railway wagons has led to pile up of imported coal, the official said.
State-run generators in India, Asia’s third-biggest energy consumer, are expected to import more coal this year as the nation seeks to cut electricity shortages. India’s thermal coal imports surged last year to about 60 million tons from about 30 million tons in 2008, Macquarie Group said in March.
India plans to increase its coal imports to 81 million tons in the year ending March 2012, Sriprakash Jaiswal, coal minister, said on Nov. 23.
About 75 percent of India’s power output is coal-fired, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said in his budget speech on Feb. 26. The South Asian nation plans to double electricity generation capacity by 2012, when the coal shortage may exceed 200 million tons.
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