Ukraine-Russia war casts shadow on SCCL coal mining activity

Hyderabad: The Russia-Ukraine war has cast a shadow on coal production in Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) following the dip in supply of ammonium nitrate to India from the two countries in conflict besides Turkey and Bulgaria. Ammonium nitrate is used in manufacture of explosives that are deployed in coal mining activity, and local manufacturers […]

Hyderabad: The Russia-Ukraine war has cast a shadow on coal production in Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) following the dip in supply of ammonium nitrate to India from the two countries in conflict besides Turkey and Bulgaria. Ammonium nitrate is used in manufacture of explosives that are deployed in coal mining activity, and local manufacturers of explosives are hit by the shortage of the raw material.

Since the beginning of the war, import of ammonium nitrate from Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, Bulgaria, among other countries, has been affected. This resulted in a dip in supply of explosives for SCCL. Manufacturers were supposed to supply 600 tonnes of explosives continuously every day for overburden removal from mines. But on an average, only 475 tonnes of explosives are presently being supplied every day to SCCL resulting in delay in meeting the targets, officials said.

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The explosives are necessary to remove 14.8 lakh cubic metres of overburden every day to meet the target of 68 million tonnes fixed for the next two months. However, only 80 per cent of explosives of the indent are being supplied.

Since manufacturers are unable to meet the targets, the SCCL has called for fresh tenders for supply of explosives regularly. SCCL Director (Operations) S Chandrashekhar said the manufacturers had time and again assured supply of explosives as per agreement entered with Singareni. However, on several occasions, they failed to meet the target.

This affected 10 per cent production of the coal supplies. “We are hopeful of settling the issue pertaining to explosives supply by April 15 as we will complete the process of finalizing tenders filed by manufacturers,” said Chandrashekhar.

To complete the targets, the SCCL was also procuring 200 tonnes of explosives from its two explosive making units in Ramagundam and Manuguru. This is in addition to the explosives being supplied by eight manufacturers, he said.

Chandrashekhar said the SCCL management was reviewing the situation regularly with manufacturers to ensure sufficient supply of explosives.

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