Bike firm, bourses eye e-coal auctions

Firms like NSEIT, TVS, and NCDEX e Markets are vying the lucrative coal-auction business from Coal India, so far handled by only two firms - state-owned MSTC Ltd and Mjunction, a joint venture between Tata Steel and SAIL – show documents available with DNA Money.

Coal India plans to sell 10% of its yearly output in the next three years via e-auctions. This means around 78 million tonne a year or a total of 235 million tonne during the entire period would be sold via e-auctions, translating into handsome revenues for those who would be conducting the sale.

Mjunction Ltd and MSTC, the only two entities who have been handling the coal spot and forward auctions ever since Coal India started selling a part of its outfit through the electronic platform in 2005, are in the fray this time as well.

These two entities have been winning back the deals every time their contract period ended and Coal India has been mulling over bringing in new players.

This time, with several strong entities in the race, there are chances that Coal India may select one or more from among other applicants.

In the fray are two exchanges: NSEIT, which is a 100% subsidiary of National Stock Exchange and the leading national commodity spot bourse NCDEX e-Markets, erstwhile NCDEX Spot Exchange.

TVS Group has joined the bid strongly through two entities: TVS Electronics that has a major presence in hardware space and auctionindia.com, an e-auction entity owned by the group.

Bengaluru-based Antares Systems, a major player in e-auction solutions space and the developer of popular e-procurement suite TenderWizard, is also one of the bidders.

These entities have already met Coal India officials to discuss the modalities of e-auction process that Coal India would be following.

Coal India had dispatched about 489.98 million tonne coal during 2014-15 and 534.62 million tonne during 2015-16. During FY15, about 60.38 million tonne was offered for sale through e-auction, out of which about 51.16 million tonne got allocated. And during FY16, about 125.52 million tonne was offered for sale through e-auction out of which about 79.80 million tonnes got finally sold.

Coal India Ltd