Monday, 10 September 2012

Tata Power's Mundra project losses likely to reduce

7 SEP, 2012, JWALIT VYAS, ET BUREAU
Mumbai: Loss at the Tata Power's Mundra Project is likely to halve due to the recent drop in the international coal prices and the management actions.

International coal prices have corrected by almost 20% since the beginning of the year in terms of Indian rupee. Tata Power uses international coal for its Mundra projects. Besides this, the company is also using more of low-grade coal, which is much cheaper.

The blending mix of low-grade coal and high-grade coal is 30:70. And the correction in the low-grade coal has been much steeper than the high-grade coal.

This will significantly reduce the company's fuel cost. According to the estimates of a leading brokerage, the project's loss by FY15, when the entire 4000 MW will be operational will be Rs 390 crore, 48% lower than the earlier estimated Rs 750 crore.

Mundra project in Gujarat, is Tata Power biggest power project with a capacity of 4000 MW. It is expected to become fully operational by FY15. The company had signed a pre-purchase agreement (PPA) with no coal cost pass through clause, for the power that will be produced from this project with the Gujarat government.

The company sources coal from its own mines in Indonesia at a price lower than the market price. However, the introduction of the tax on benchmark coal price has increased the coal cost for the company and made the project unviable. Besides this, the company is hopeful of the revision in the PPA tariffs will further benefit the company to reduce its losses.

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