India produced 43.5 million tonnes of coal in April, 3.15 percent more from a year earlier, provisional figures obtained from a government source showed on Friday, but still lagged a government-set monthly target. India, which relies on coal to fuel more than half of its power generation, was chasing a target of 44.7 million tonnes of coal production in April.
Despite being the world's third-largest coal producer, India's imports of the fuel have risen steadily in the past few years as capacity additions in the power sector have outpaced the growth in domestic production.
India's thermal coal production rose 0.76 percent from a year earlier to 39.2 million tonnes, while coking coal output jumped 30.8 percent to 4.4 million tonnes during the month, provisional figures obtained by Reuters showed.
State-run Coal India Ltd, the world's biggest miner, produced 35.8 million tonnes, accounting for more than 80 percent of the country's total output.
The world's fourth-biggest importer of coal produced 557.7 million tonnes of coal in 2012/13, 3.3 percent higher from a year earlier.
Following is a table on India's coal production, in million tonnes, in April, versus the year-ago period.
April 2013 April 2012
Producer Target Actual
Coal India Ltd 35.15 35.75 33.81
Singareni Collieries 4.15 2.90 3.17
Captive and others 5.42 4.87 5.22
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TOTAL* 44.72 43.52 42.2
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*Figures are rounded off.
-Sourced
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