India's coal shortage = CPT's opportunity... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-26/ntpc-coal-imports-said-to-double-on-shortage-corporate-india.html
NTPC Ltd. (NTPC), Asia’s second-biggest power utility by value, will almost double purchases of coal from outside India this fiscal year to curb fuel shortages at its plants, said two company officials familiar with the plans.
The state-run Indian company will import 17 million metric tons of thermal coal in the year started April 1, compared with 9 million tons the previous year, the people said, asking not to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media. NTPC’s plants in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh face a shortage of coal.
Power producers in India are relying on imports of the fuel to bridge a shortfall in shipments from Coal India Ltd. (COAL), the nation’s monopoly supplier. Land acquisition hurdles and delays in federal approvals for mines are depriving power plants of coal supplies and keeping almost 400 million in the world’s second-most populated nation without electricity.
“Increasing imports has become a must for NTPC since many of its plants are running with alarmingly low coal stocks,” said Lakshminarayana Ganti, an analyst at Standard Chartered Securities India Ltd., who has an outperform rating for the stock. “Adequate fuel availability is critical to NTPC’s earnings.”