BackMarket round-up | New capacities may add to private power firms’ stress
In other news, scrapping old vehicles can boost sales by 65%, Philippines data cost among cheapest in Asia
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Forthcoming thermal power capacities can make things worse for private sector thermal plants, warns India Ratings and Research. Utilization or the plant load factor of private thermal plants fell below 60% in the first nine months of the current fiscal year due to low demand. According to the ratings agency, more than half of new capacities are being built by central and state utilities and have power purchase agreements. But private sector capacities are not fully tied-up, as financially stressed power distribution firms are not committing to long-term purchases. This can have an adverse impact on utilization levels, warns India Ratings.
Scrapping old vehicles can boost sales by 65%
The government’s voluntary-vehicle modernization programme can boost commercial vehicle sales by 65% between fiscal years 2018 and 2020, according to a Crisil Ltd analysis. It expects owners of trucks older than 13 years to opt for the scheme, based on the equation of current resale value versus benefits under the scheme. Crisil estimates that the scheme could lead to additional sales of 440,000 commercial vehicles, mainly medium and heavy commercial vehicles. In addition, 200,000 commercial vehicles could get scrapped and replaced, taking the total to 640,000 vehicles.
Philippines data cost among cheapest in Asia
A Bloomberg report says the Philippines ranks among the cheapest markets for data packages for mobile subscribers, with a battle between two of its largest telecom firms sending rates down. The report carries a chart from UBS which shows China with the most expensive data rate at 1.13 US cents per MB, while India comes third with 0.38 cents and the Philippines is the lowest at 0.1 cents per MB. Of course, this does not take into account Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd’s data package announced this week, where its free plans will be replaced by a priced offering from 1 April. Once that takes effect and other telecom operators react to it, India’s data costs are likely to trend lower.
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