Pakistan: Power Cement has awarded a coal supply contract to Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) on a trial basis. The Dawn newspaper has reported that SECM's locally sourced coal may subsequently replace imported coal in cement production at Power Cement's Nooriabad cement plant in Sindh.
SECMC produces 3.8Mt/yr of coal from the Thar coalfield. It has an extraction capacity of 7.6Mt/yr, which it plans to increase by 61% to 12.2Mt/yr with a new expansion phase by June 2023. SECMC said that this will lower the price of its coal by 36% to US$27/t from US$42/t. Currently, only Afghanistan is exporting coal to Pakistan, at a price of US$166/t.
Thar coal has a relatively low heating value, including by comparison to Pakistani coal from the western provinces of Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
