Domestic miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) stepped up its coal production in Oct’21 after recovering from the monsoon hiatus in order to replenish the power plants’ inventory.
Coal production increased 23% m-o-m to 49.8 million tonnes (mn t) in Oct’21 compared to 40.65 mn t in Sept’21. Notably, the October output was the highest attained in the past seven fiscals, as per data maintained with CoalMint.
The company had maintained a higher production level in FY’22 compared to the previous fiscal, but faced difficulty in raising the output at a time when coal inventory at the power plants had plunged due to shortfall in supply.
In particular, mines of Eastern Coalfields Limited (ECL) and Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), to a large extent, and some of Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) were affected due to the extensive rainfall.
However, showing greater intent to ramp up production post-monsoon, all the subsidiaries, except ECL, had posted an uptick in output during Oct’21.
Quantity in Million Tonne
Elevated supply helps combat power crisis
CIL had been under pressure to revive the coal stocks at the power plants and it did manage to pull several plants out of criticality by augmenting supplies.
The company’s coal dispatches of 56.66 mn t in Oct’21 were the highest for the current fiscal, rising 17% m-o-m from 48.42 mn t in Sept’21.
Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) was the largest supplier in this period as it registered a series of good performances that boosted supplies to the power plants.
The subsidiary created a new milestone of dispatching over 0.56 mn t of coal on 24 Oct’21, thus improving on its previous highs of 0.547 mn t and 0.545 mn t that were also attained recently.
The efforts helped the power plants to build up coal stock levels of 10.08 mn t assessed on 29 Oct’21, up 27% from 7.96 mn t seen at the start of the month. Besides, the number of plants having critically low inventory levels that dropped below eight days of power generation were gradually reduced from 104 to 83.
However, in the midst of improving the power sector’s inventory levels, CIL’s own pit-head stocks have now fallen to a new low of 35.12 mn t at the end of Oct’21 which was assessed at 99 mn t at the start of FY’22.
With the festive season round the corner, the miner is likely to maintain higher dispatch volumes to the power sector in order to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply. Till then, the coal supplies to the non-power sector are expected to remain affected.
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