On June 9, Indian state-owned steel giants Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) concluded coking coal yearly contract price negotiations for the Indian FY 2009-10, agreeing on a 60 percent reduction from the last fiscal year's contract prices.
Accordingly, the parties have agreed on $115-125 per metric ton for coking coal prices, which is 60 percent lower than the last fiscal year levels of $292-300/mt. According to Steel Secretary P. K. Rastogi, the new contract will be effective from April 1 this year, instead of July 1, and the differential price for three months (April-June) of the FY 2008-09 contract will be carried forward over a span of a few years.
In FY 2008-09 SAIL's expenditure for 10.5 million metric tons of coking coal imports amounted to around Rupees 60 billion (approx. $1.270 billion).