World’s top coal miner hikes prices as wage bill surges
Coal India, the world’s biggest miner of the fuel, raised prices for the first time in five years to offset an increase to its $5-billion wage bill.
Prices of the top nine grades of thermal coal will rise by 8% from Wednesday, the company said in a statement, in a move that’s aimed at lifting revenue to help offset the impact of the rising cost of non-executive salaries.
The increase involves higher-quality categories of coal used mainly by industrial customers rather than by power plants to generate electricity, meaning the price hike shouldn’t have a major impact on energy bills. India relies on coal for about 70% of its electricity generation.
Coal India’s management has been aiming to lift prices for months amid higher costs of diesel and after it finalized a 19% salary increase for its non-executive staff, an agreement that will lift an annual wage bill that was about $4.9-billion in 2022.
“The price revision is well below our expectations,” said Rahul Kailash Jain, an analyst at Mumbai-based Systematix Shares & Stocks India. “It doesn’t even cover the rise in salaries.”
Kolkata-based Coal India declined 1.4% in early trading Wednesday. The producer has advanced almost 8% this year on higher demand for the fuel, even as earnings tumbled in the first three months on provisions to cover the increase in salary costs.
Consumption of coal has surged on higher electricity demand as India’s industries rebounded from pandemic curbs, and as a bout of sweltering heat has led homes and businesses to crank up cooling appliances.
Revenue is forecast to increase by 27-billion rupees ($326-million) in the 12 months through March on account of the price increases, Coal India said Tuesday.
Comments
Research Reports
Projects
Latest News
Showroom
Weir Minerals Europe, Middle East and Africa is a global supplier of excellent minerals solutions, including pumps, valves, hydrocyclones,...
VISIT SHOWROOM
Press Office
Announcements
What's On
Subscribe to improve your user experience...
Option 1 (equivalent of R125 a month):
Receive a weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine
(print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
Receive daily email newsletters
Access to full search results
Access archive of magazine back copies
Access to Projects in Progress
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
Option 2 (equivalent of R375 a month):
All benefits from Option 1
PLUS
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports, in PDF format, on various industrial and mining sectors
including Electricity; Water; Energy Transition; Hydrogen; Roads, Rail and Ports; Coal; Gold; Platinum; Battery Metals; etc.
Already a subscriber?
Forgotten your password?
Receive weekly copy of Creamer Media's Engineering News & Mining Weekly magazine (print copy for those in South Africa and e-magazine for those outside of South Africa)
➕
Recieve daily email newsletters
➕
Access to full search results
➕
Access archive of magazine back copies
➕
Access to Projects in Progress
➕
Access to ONE Research Report of your choice in PDF format
RESEARCH CHANNEL AFRICA
R4500 (equivalent of R375 a month)
SUBSCRIBEAll benefits from Option 1
➕
Access to Creamer Media's Research Channel Africa for ALL Research Reports on various industrial and mining sectors, in PDF format, including on:
Electricity
➕
Water
➕
Energy Transition
➕
Hydrogen
➕
Roads, Rail and Ports
➕
Coal
➕
Gold
➕
Platinum
➕
Battery Metals
➕
etc.
Receive all benefits from Option 1 or Option 2 delivered to numerous people at your company
➕
Multiple User names and Passwords for simultaneous log-ins
➕
Intranet integration access to all in your organisation
