Coal India Ltd (CIL), country’s largest coal producer, has extended the rise in monthly coal production, though output level was curtailed by weaker demand from the power sector.
Production increased 13% m-o-m to 58.34 mn t in Dec ’20 against 51.7 mn t, but the growth on the y-o-y basis was reduced to a 5-month low of 0.5% compared with 58 mn t in Dec ’19.
After a COVID-19 hit spell in the beginning of FY ’21, the miner has recorded progressive rise in production from Aug ’20 onwards. However, any further recovery was halted by the early onset of winters.
As per the data maintained by POSOCO, all-India power demand averaged 3279 MU in Nov ’20, which came down 8% m-o-m from 3579 MU in Oct ’20. Consequently, CIL’s coal dispatch decreased 2% y-o-y to 52.58 mn t in Dec ’20, for the first time since Aug ’20.
Although, sign of improvement was noted in demand as average power consumption increased to 3356 MU assessed up to second week of Dec ’20, healthy coal stock available at the power plants had lessened the coal requirement.
Interestingly, the company has managed to register a marginal rise in production for the first 9 months of FY ’21 (Apr-Dec ’20), as output increased 1.1% to 392.8 mn t against 388.4 mn t in Apr-Dec ’19. But, total dispatch of 409.7 mn t is still lagging behind by 2% y-o-y compared with 417.5 mn t noted in the year-ago period.
Recently, CIL has announced its venture into solar power value chain business and renewable energy vertical and an integrated aluminium complex, in order to explore other avenues after struggling to ramp up coal production in recent years.
Going into the final quarter of this fiscal, the company is expected to scale down its planned production target of 710 mn t.
Leave a Reply