Chinese firm offers cheapest coal to Napocor

Chinese coal trading firm Shenhua Corp./Baretech has tendered the lowest bid for the coal requirements of the 1,200-megawatt Sual and 600-megawatt Masinloc coal-fired plants, the National Power Corp. (Napocor) said over the weekend.

In a bidding held last May 23, Napocor has bid out five panamax shipments each for Sual and Masinloc.

Sual is being operated by Mirant Philippines for Napocor while Masinloc is managed by Napocor.

The contract, estimated at $20.5 million, will cover the plants’ requirements from August 2003 to September 2004. Sual’s coal inventory has been dropping due to the plant’s higher utilization.

For Sual’s tender, Shenhua posted a bid of $31.66 per metric ton, the lowest among the three bids. Noble Energy tendered $31.69 per metric ton and Shanxi, $31.70 per MT.

Shenhua also garnered the lowest bid for Masinloc at $32.37 per MT compared with Shanxi’s $32.40 per MT.

Shenhua’s bid will only be declared the winning bid after an approval from the Board of Napocor on the second week of June.

Napocor will bid a total of $43.95 million worth of its coal requirements this year for the Masinloc, Sual, and the 700-megawatt Pagbilao coal plants.