Dubai firm may buy coal mine in Indonesia: Report
Tuesday, August 30 2005 - 06:50 AM WIB
CNO president and CEO, Ahmed A.R. Buhari, told reporters in Chennai of India on Monday that the mine would have a capacity of about 8 million tons and the company hoped to complete the acquisition in six months.
This acquisition would help CNO get a captive source of coal for supplying to its customers. The company's focus would continue to be India, where it did bulk of its business, he said.
According to him, CNO has a 30 percent share of the imported coal market in India, supplying to leading companies such as Tata Power, Reliance Energy, Malabar Cements Ltd, Ahmedabad Electricity Company Ltd and a number of State electricity boards.
He said that the company participated in competitive bids invited by electricity boards and also had long-term supply agreements with companies such as Tata Power.
Over time, CNO hoped to become an integrated energy company - mining coal, supplying coal from its own mine and from other sources, transporting coal through its own ships, providing inland warehousing and logistics facilities and setting up independent power projects, Buhari said.
Buhari said that in 2004-05, the company supplied five million tons of coal (mainly steam coal). This year it hoped to supply 8.5 million tons of coal, of which seven million tons would be to India. The company sourced coal from various countries, including Russia, Indonesia and Australia. (*)