India’s Coal Crisis Imperils Energy-Heavy Commodity Industry
- Some companies fear power rationing if the situation worsens
- More use of back-up power generators may erode their margins
A conveyor at a power station in Mumbai, India.
Photographer: Dhiraj Singh/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
An escalating power crisis in India, triggered by dwindling reserves of coal that helps generate about 70% of the nation’s electricity, threatens operations of commodity-related businesses ranging from oil refineries to aluminum smelting to meat processing.
Coal inventories at power plants plummeted to an average four days this week, down from 13 days at the start of August, official data show. More than half of the plants are already on alert for outages, with the government warning that the country could be facing a supply squeeze for as long as six months.