In what has been a dismal year in terms of coal demand, annual production registered by Coal India Ltd has lost ground compared to the previous fiscals.
The miner accumulated 596.25 mn t coal in FY ’21 recording a marginal drop of 1% y-o-y against 602.1 mn t in FY ’20, in the process it failed to breach 600 mn t output mark for the first time in past three years.
Historically, the company adopts practice of raising its production levels in the fiscal ending month of March. However, despite best efforts from the subsidiaries, coal production of 81.16 mn t in Mar ’21 remained around 3 mn t lesser than the output attained in the year-ago period.
With the country struggling to cope against COVID-19, CIL too felt the heat as it faced a massive demand crunch for its coal supply.
Notably, various relaxations were introduced in order to provide much needed financial relief to the customers, but to the dismay of the coal company these measures proved insufficient as the overall dispatch of 573.8 mn t in FY ’21 dropped 1.3% y-o-y from 581.4 mn t in FY ’20.
In fact, remarkable recovery in the fiscal-end month enabled CIL to reduce the deficit, as it attained a 12% growth in coal dispatch to 59.79 mn t in Mar ’21, after witnessing a successive decline for the past three months.
SECL remained at the top:
Late flurry of performance saw South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) claimed its spot as the highest coal producing subsidiary in FY ’21. The company recorded single-day production of 1 mn t four times in the month of Mar ’21 thereby helping it to attain its highest monthly production of 26.43 mn t.
Overall, SECL accumulated 150.6 mn t for FY ’21, grossing 150 mn t output for the third successive fiscal.
MCL came behind with 148 mn t coal followed by NCL which has been the best performing subsidiary of CIL in terms of coal production. Notably, the company not only recorded highest growth rate but was also the sole subsidiary to have attained its production target for the fiscal.
Subsidiary-wise Coal Production
Note: Mining Operation at NECL has been temporarily suspended since Jun ’20.
Drastic rise in stock-piles assessed at 99 mn t at the end of the fiscal would be a major challenge for CIL going forward. Nevertheless, the company remains determined to reduce inventories by catering the surge in coal demand at a time when power requirement has been on a positive side during the summer.
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