Seeking to shield coal prices as input costs spike amidst the escalating tensions in West Asia, state-owned miner Coal India informed that it absorbed price shocks of ammonium nitrate - which rose about 44%, and diesel which rose about 54%, without passing on the burden to final consumers.

In a statement issued Friday (April 10, 2026), the Kolkata-headquartered miner informed the cost of ammonium nitrate increased from pre-war levels, that is, as on March 1, of ₹50,500 per metric ton to ₹72,750 per metric ton as on April 1. For context, the chemical element is a critical input used to manufacture explosives which the miner utilises in its open cast mines.

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Coal India’s producing subsidiaries consume about 9 lakh metric tons of explosives in a single year.

“This sharp increase in the price of ammonium nitrate had a direct bearing on the cost of explosives that Coal India uses in large quantities in blasting operations to uncover overburden and expose coal seams,” it stated, adding, “As a result, average cost of explosives shot up by around 26% from ₹39,588 per metric ton in February this year to ₹49,783 per metric ton by March-end.”

Further, the state-owned coal miner informed that prices of diesel too witnessed an uptick. It held, price of industrial diesel shot up by about 54% from ₹92 for every litre in the middle of March this year to ₹142 per litre on the first day of April.

For perspective, Coal India consumed 41.9 lakh litres of industrial diesel.