Sale halted after unusual purchase for 2 days

Authorities of Barapukuria Coal Mining Company Ltd (BCMCL) temporarily suspended sale of coal from Wednesday after 60,000 tonnes were sold within 48 hours (Monday and Tuesday) following a rumour of a rise in the price of coal.

The mine sells around 4,000 tonnes of coal every day, which has gone up to 30,000 tonnes in the last two days.

Mine authorities informed the coal buyers about the suspension through a notice issued yesterday.

Brickfield operators, who mostly use coal as their primary fuel for baking bricks, alleged on Wednesday that they have to buy the coal from middlemen by paying higher price.

"All the coal goes to the local syndicated group," said Ashraful Alam, a brickfield operator in Panchbibi upazila of Joypurhat. He said the decision of suspension was taken when the brickfield operators are preparing for the next season. 

 Hearing about the sudden rise in the sale of coal, hundreds of brickfield operators of Dinajpur and surrounding districts gathered at the coalmine area in Parbatipur upazila of Dinajpur to buy coal for the coming season.

Many said they could not get inside the mine complex as security was tightened at the entrance gate.

They alleged that Ibrahim Khalil and Moshir Rahman of the mine area stocked 3,500 tonnes of coal each. 

Md Aminuzzaman, managing director of BCMCL, said they later imposed a restriction that each applicant would get 200 tonnes of coal, which was later reduced to 100 tonnes. 

Besides, production at Barapukuria remained suspended for one month for scheduled maintenance and mine development, and may resume from July 24, he added.

The authorities cut the price of coal by Tk 5,680 to Tk 8,000 per tonne on May 22 to increase sale as stock continued rising because traders preferred cheap imported coal. Sale started dropping last year when the mine authorities raised coal price to Tk 13,680 from Tk 9,200 per tonne.

Coal imported from countries like Indonesia and Malaysia is available at Tk 6,000 to Tk 7,000, but the heating value of local coal is much higher than that of imported coal.

There was nearly 3,32,000 tonnes of coal at the coal yard in May. Of them, power plants consumed 92,000 tonnes, and 1,80,000 tonnes were sold between May 22 and July 12.

"We now have 60,000 metric tonnes of coal reserved for coal fired power plants," the MD said.