Billionaire Adani is winning from India’s shift to import coal

Billionaire Gautam Adani’s conglomerate is benefiting from India’s rush to import coal to ease a supply crunch, winning a huge majority of import orders from state power giant NTPC Ltd.

New Delhi-based NTPC has placed orders for 20 million tons of imported coal for the fiscal year ending March, of which almost 17.3 million tons have been awarded to Adani Enterprises Ltd., according to people with knowledge of the matter. 

NTPC has already received about 7 million tons of overseas coal at its plants this year, the people said, asking not to be named as the information isn’t public. 

Adani and NTPC didn’t immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

Cooling demand during a sweltering summer and a post-pandemic industrial revival has pushed India’s electricity consumption to a record and overwhelmed local coal supply, prompting the government to urge companies to turn to imports. Coal India Ltd., the state-run supplier of the fossil fuel, issued a first-ever import tender in June.

Adani’s ports unit may report improved revenue in the June quarter after benefiting from the rise in imports, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Denise Wong wrote in a Monday note. The company is “well positioned to capture that demand, underpinned by fixed contracts with power producers and a strong transportation network,” she said.

Coal inventories at power plants have risen by about 11% in the past month aided by imports.