CIL cancels maiden short-term import tender

Coal India (CIL) has cancelled its first procurement for short-term coal imports, in which Adani Enterprises had been the winning bidder. Adani had bid Rs 40.33 billion for the delivery of 2.416 million tonne (mt) on a freight on road basis, however CIL did not award the contract to Adani. However, it has already issued a letter of intent to Indonesian agency Bara Daya Energi Consortium for medium-term imports of 6 million tonnes, and a contract for importing 791,000 tonnes has been signed, according to individuals in the know. While CIL admitted that it had cancelled its first tender, it did not provide any explanation. As per reports, while Adani has emerged as the L1 bidder, it will only issue an official disclosure alerting stock markets after conducting a rigorous financial review. According to trade sources, CIL regarded Adani's financial offer to be expensive, with a significant price differential against their predicted tender value of Rs 3850 billion, for 2.4 mt of imports.