Spot Markets in Coal, Electricity and Gold on the horizon in India to coincide with privatized coal mining and gold refining

Spot trading in Coal is on the horizon according to the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) to coincide with commercial coal mines becoming operational in this decade when 40 per cent of the coal in India will be mined by companies other than State run monopoly Coal India Ltd. India's coal imports have increased largely because of demand from new power plants which are designed to use only high grade imported coal.India imported 215 million tons in 2020-21 mostly from Australia, South Africa and Indonesia. Anil Kumar Jain, India's coal secretary, said in October that the country plans to eliminate imports of thermal coal by 2024.

India’s rush towards renewables is projected to boost trading on the energy spot market to more than quadruple in two years, according to Bloomberg. The share of power under long term contracts is expected to drop between 50 to 60 percent in the next few years.

In a separte report from the World Gold Council (WGC), titled Bullion Trade in India, part of a series of in-depth analyses on India’s bullion market, increasing import of gold doré — a semi-pure alloy of gold and silver — in the last few years has led to a massive expansion of gold refineries in India. The number of refineries rose from 3 in 2012 to 32 in 2020 with a combined refining capacity of 1,200- 1,400 tonnes. Of these, 23 refineries imported doré in 2020 and the top five refineries accounted for more than 70 percent of India’s doré imports.
According to WGC, bullion banking is one of the key pillars to address multiple challenges faced by India’s gold market, such as a lack of quality assurance, the unorganised state of the market and a lack of trust in international markets but with bullion banks like Bank of Nova Scotia exiting their precious metals business and many large bullion dealers (previously clients of the banks) setting up their own refineries, banks’ share of official imports shrank from 40 percent in 2017 to 19 percent in 2020 as the business shifted to refineries.