India’s coal dispatches rise by 5% y-o-y in Dec’22

India’s coal dispatches in December 2022 stood at 78.9 million tonnes (mnt), an increase of 5.3% y-o-y while dispatches rose by 6% m-o-m, as per data maintained with CoalMint.

This increase in offtake was pushed by the rise in production. India’s coal production in December stood at 82.9 mnt, an increase of almost 11% m-o-m.

Notably, production exceeded dispatches in December 2022. As a result, the country had surplus coal inventory of 4 mnt in December. This marks a significant improvement compared to December 2021 when production and dispatches were same in volume, indicating the country’s preparedness to create higher coal inventory to tackle the surge in power demand in the peak summer months.

Company-wise dispatches

Coal India Ltd’s (CIL) offtake registered a marginal growth of 3.6% y-o-y in December. Singareni Collieries Company Ltd. (SCCL) and captive/other miners’ y-o-y growth were 8.9% and 17.9%, respectively.

CIL’s coal dispatches in December were 62.7 mnt while for SCCL and captive miners’ dispatches were 6.7 mnt and 9.5 mnt, respectively.

Dispatches up 7% in Apr-Dec’22

India’s total coal dispatches in April-December 2022 were 637 mnt, an increase of 7% y-o-y. The highest y-o-y growth of 27% was achieved by the captive miners. CIL’s dispatches increased by 5.43% to 481.6 mnt during the period. However, SCCL’s dispatches saw a marginal drop of 2% at 47.3 mnt from the year-ago period.

Dispatches to non-power sector up 11%

Coal offtake by the non-power sector rose by 11% y-o-y to 13.26 mnt as there were no constraints on supplies amid increase in coal production. Interestingly, coal allocation to the non-power sector was curtailed during the summer amid high power demand.

Captive power producers (CPPs) and the steel sector saw dispatches increase by 72% and 41% y-o-y, respectively, among non-power consumers in December. CPPs received 4.79 mnt of coal, while the steel industry received 0.9 mnt.

Moreover, coal offtake to the power sector only increased by 4% y-o-y as power demand was moderate amid favourable weather conditions. Coal allocation to the power sector was 65.6 mnt in December.