In order to address the growing coal demand for summer season, Coal India Ltd (CIL) is taking cautious approach, so as not to repeat the mistake that had led to the eventual shortage of coal this year.
CIL has already mandated power plants to lift coal through road mode from available pithead coal stock which were located within 50-60 Km from its nearby coal mines.
The coal company has faced issues regarding coal transportation due to low availability of railway rakes, hence to provide easy evacuation CIL had provided flexibility in coal transportation.
In reply to a questionnaire raise in parliament session, Coal Minister Mr. Piyush Goyal had told that, the movement of coal through road mode was about 93 MnT during Apr’17-Oct’17 period, which was about 29% of the total coal dispatch of 317 MnT. Coal dispatch through road during the period increased by about 12 MnT over the dispatch of 81 MnT during the corresponding period of 2016-17.
Last year, CIL had posted coal production of 66.07 MnT in Mar’17, following which the pithead coal stock of the company had increased to 68.42 MnT as on 31 Mar’17 from 57.64 MnT as on 1 Apr’16.
CIL was initially engaged in dispatching higher coal quantity than the corresponding coal production, in order to liquidate the existing stock; accordingly the production was lower during Apr’17-Jul’17 period. Many power state generating companies such as RRVUNL, GSECL, PSPCL, HPGCL, MPGCL and MAHAGENCO had also lowered their monthly coal receipt at that time.
Eventually, when the demand for thermal power generation had surge in Aug’17, CIL was unable to meet the cater power plant’s coal requirement, which had seen Indian coal import rising in the subsequent months.
In order to prevent any short coming in the coming fiscal, CIL has gradually been increasing its coal production. Moreover, the company has posted monthly production above 50 MnT since Nov’17, which was also higher than the monthly coal dispatch.
| Month | Production | Dispatch | Excess Coal to Stock |
| Nov’17 | 51.29 | 50.67 | 0.62 |
| Dec’17 | 54.63 | 53.44 | 1.19 |
| Jan’18 | 56.69 | 53.7 | 2.99 |
| Feb’18 | 54.46 | 49.97 | 4.49 |
| Total | 217.07 | 207.78 | 9.29 |
Source: CIL
Quantity in MnT
As per the data maintained by CoalMint Research, CIL has added coal quantity of 9.29 MnT to its existing pithead stock during Nov’17-Feb’18, which would be liquidated to serve the demand during summer season.
CIL’s coal dispatch to the power plants has increased 7.2% Y-o-Y to 411.3 MnT during Apr’17-Feb’18, data provided by Coal Ministry showed.
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