New Delhi : Country’s top dry-fuel miner Coal India (CIL) has become the sixth-largest mining company in the world in terms of market capital, says a recent PwC report. Earlier, the company was at the eighth spot among top 40 global mining firms, according to the report. NMDC, the country’s top iron ore miner which also figures in the list, has improved its position by coming to the 21st slot from 24th earlier.
The report “Mine 2015”, which analyses the financial performance of the top 40 mining companies by market capitalisation, says though there have been improvements in most financial statement metrics across the top 40 companies, market values continued to decline. “The top 40 miners lost USD 156 billion, or about 16 per cent of their combined market value, in 2014,” the report said, adding that the good news is that it is only half of last year’s slide.
The decline in market value in 2014 was driven largely by iron ore miners, in particular the diversified companies with large exposure.
Iron ore was the hardest hit in 2014 with prices falling by half due to oversupply and a negative short-term demand outlook.
“Only six of the top 40 exceeded the 15 per cent benchmark. They include Coal India (coal), Norilsk Nickel (nickel), NMDC (iron ore), Randgold (gold), Shandong Gold (gold), and Newcrest (gold),” the report said, adding that further actions are needed around capital allocation and cost control.
