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How the trade works

How a coal deal moves: from purchase to collection

The usual path of a load — buy, lift, move, receive, stock, sell, dispatch, deliver, bill, collect, settle, reconcile — and where it most often goes wrong.

Last checked by Coal Boss

Most coal deals follow the same broad path, even if every business runs it its own way. Coal is bought — from a PSU auction against a sale order, from a mine, an importer or another trader. It is lifted or loaded, moved by road (or rail), received and weighed, tested for quality, and stocked in a yard. It is then sold, dispatched, delivered against a proof of delivery, billed, and the money is collected. Along the way the transporter is settled, and the books are reconciled.

Each step creates a record someone else relies on: the sale order and lifting balance, the lorry receipt and kanta slip, the lab report, the stock register, the invoice and e-way bill, the POD, the payment entry and the ledger.

Trouble usually starts at a hand-off — where one person's figure becomes another person's starting point. A weight typed differently at dispatch and at billing, a lab report on a different basis, a payment entered against the wrong invoice. The fewer times the same figure is re-typed, the fewer places it can drift.

More detail

Not every business has every step. A trader who buys from an importer has no auction or lifting; a depot that sells from stock may never touch a PSU sale order; some traders sell 'on the wheel', dispatching straight from the source without yard stock.

Exceptions are part of the path, not failures of it: part-lifting before a DO expires, short or excess weight on arrival, a quality claim, a partial or advance payment, a disputed freight deduction. Each needs its own record, or it ends up in someone's memory.

What it means if you trade coal

Map your own path once — step by step, with who records what. The steps where a figure is re-typed or kept only on paper are where disputes and delays come from.

Hinglish mein, short mein

Coal ka sauda aam taur pe aise chalta hai: kharid (auction, khadaan, importer ya trader) → lifting ya loading → gaadi → maal aana aur kanta → quality test → stock → bikri → dispatch → POD ke saath delivery → bill → vasooli → transporter ka hisaab → milan. Gadbad aksar wahan hoti hai jahan ek aadmi ka figure doosre ka shuruaati figure banta hai.

Sources

  • ExplanationCoal Boss explanation of common coal-trade practice

Coal Boss explanation of common trade practice — not a rule. Every business agrees its own terms.

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