Napocor to soon open second batch tenders for coal

The Philippines state-owned power firm National Power Corp. (Napocor) said it would auction on March 28 two more coal supply contracts following a successful bidding last week, the Philippine Daily Inquirer reported recently.

Inquirer said the Napocor?s approved budget for the two additional contracts were $11.51 million (about P633 million) and $11.83 million (about P650 million) or a total of about P1.3 billion.

The first contract is for the supply needs of the 1,200-megawatt Sual plant in Pangasinan while the second is for the 600-MW Masinloc plant in Zambales.

Each contract commits the winning bidder to deliver several shipments totaling 325,000 metric tons of coal.

Last week, Napocor finally kicked off a series of contract auctions with two deals costing a total of about $20.2 million or P1.1 billion.

Hong Kong-based trading firm Baretech Ltd., representing China's Shenhua coal mine, won the first batch of contracts for both the Sual and Masinloc power plants.

The power firm is set to offer a total of four batches of tenders to secure its coal supply needs up to May 2004, which is estimated at 3.13 million metric tons. (*)