These and some other processing industries want some pressing issues to be settled first, before they start using coal as an alternative fuel to oil and gas. Sindh has estimated coal deposits at 218.101 billion tons, around 98 per cent of total deposits of the country, and these are expected to last for several decades. Thar coal deposits alone are estimated to be around 200 billion tons. Taking the case of the cement industry, the annual production capacity of 23 cement units is around 15-18 million tons and conversion of this capacity and the one in the pipeline will require around 3.5 million tons of coal annually. The existing capacity is sufficient to meet this demand and it can be increased, if necessary, very easily.
Indigenous coal is less expensive as compared to other fuels.
The process of cement production requires huge energy consumption, constituting nearly 45 per cent of the cost of production of cement including both electricity and fuel oil. The industry consumes about 85 kilogramme of fuel oil for production of one ton of clinker. Based on the production of 9,900,000 tons clinker in 1999-2000, the industry's consumption of fuel oil works out to 841,500 tons per annum. If the 23 cement plants start producing cement at their full installed capacity then 1.36 million tons of imported fuel oil, costing Rs 14 billion, will be required annually. A.R. Thaplawala says that the industry is keen to shift over to coal but it has some serious problems.