MMTC Ltd, one of India's biggest importer of non-ferrous metals, expects its coal imports to drop by 33 per cent in the current financial year, on account of a lower import order by India's largest power generation utility- National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd (NTPC).The fall in imports will affect on the company's profits as coal is one of the significant contributors.
"In 2010-11, our coal imports stood at 15 million tonnes of which we had imported 12 million tonnes only for NTPC. We see our coal imports dropping to 10 million tonnes this fiscal due to a lower import order by NTPC", the company's chairman cum managing director H S Mann said.
The company was looking to foray into coal mining. The PSU has been allocated the Gomia coal block in Jharkhand with indicated coking coal reserve of around 1100 million tonnes. “MMTC has been granted the Prospecting License (PL) for the Gomia coal block by the Ministry of Mines nearly 4-5 months back. The company has already conducted the pre-feasibility study and will now be doing the detailed exploration of the block. We will be floating a tender within two months for selection of a mine developer", Mann said.
