The Hindu Business Line : CIL appeal to mining equipment makers

The two-day international conference of the 8th India Mining Summit (IMM-2006) concluded on Friday with a valedictory address by the Chairman of Coal India Ltd, Mr Partha S Bhattacharjee.

In his address, Mr Bhattacharjee urged leading domestic and international mining equipment and machinery manufacturers to play a major role to satisfy the growing requirement of such machines and equipment in the Indian coal and mineral mining sectors.

CIL itself would require a large number of dumper, shovels, heavy-duty trucks and other equipment in the next 10 years for new mines as well as for replacement, he said.

He felt that all CIL's 85-tonne operating dumpers should be replaced by 100-tonne dumpers. He said he had come around to this view after seeing the 100-tonne dumpers on display at the exhibition, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) along with the summit.

Staying competitive

The CIL Chairman asked manufacturers/suppliers to keep the prices of their machines and equipment at reasonable levels so that CIL could maintain production at competitive costs. He reminded them that CIL had to operate in a global environment. Hence coal produced by it should be competitive.

He said the summit was organised at an appropriate time, particularly when India was opening up its coal mining and mineral sectors in the real sense of the term. He said CIL had at present a domestic market share of 85 per cent of the country coal production. To maintain it, it would also need to augment production in the next few years.

The Chairman of the CII National Committee on Mines and CMD of Bharat Earth Movers Ltd (BEML), Mr V. Rs. Natarajan, said the purpose of the conference and exhibition had been served.

Over 200 exhibitors from 15 countries, including Australia as the Partner Country, participated in the summit.

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