India’s coal production has grown by 8.27% to 58.33 million tonnes (mnt) in August 2022.
The total output includes major contributions from state-run entities, Coal India Ltd (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL), while the remaining volume comes from other mines both captive and non-captive.
The rise in production was primarily driven by steady performance from CIL and the captive miners as they registered y-o-y growth of 8.5% and 27%, producing respectively 46.22 mnt and 8 mnt of coal in August.
However, SCCL’s production fell by 17.5% y-o-y to 4.1 mnt during the month due to the impact of heavy rains.
India’s coal production till August in FY’23 rose by 23% y-o-y to 324 mnt.
CIL: NCL, MCL push growth
Mining giant CIL saw an uptick in coal production across its subsidiaries except tyhe Western Coalfields Ltd (WCL) during August.
The largest coal producer, Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL), registered y-o-y growth of 10.6% in August, pushing coal output to 14 mnt against 12.6 mnt in August 2021.
This was followed by the Northern Coalfields Limited (NCL) whose production surged 16% y-o-y to 10.54 mnt in August.
Notably, these two subsidiaries contributed almost 77% in the absolute growth in production y-o-y. Besides, they achieved respective targets by 100% and 95% for the month.
CIL’s biggest coking coal producing subsidiary, Bharat Coking Coal Limited (BCCL), achieved the highest growth rate of 21.4% y-o-y, taking its production to 2.72 mnt in August.
Eastern Coalfields (ECL) and Central Coalfields (CCL) registered growth in excess of 10% compared to August 2021.
However, WCL was the only subsidiary to report y-o-y drop in coal production. This was due to heavy rains that flooded its mines. Subdued performance was also recorded from SECL whose production remained rangebound at 9.4 mnt.
CIL’s coal production till August in FY’23 stood at 253 mnt, 21% higher y-o-y.
SCCL
SCCL’s production fell by 17.5% y-o-y in August because of heavy rains.
However, by virtue of higher output seen in the beginning of the fiscal, the company’s total production in FY’23 till August fell 4% y-o-y to 24.3 mnt.
The company is said to have implemented measures to make up for loss in production in the ensuing months.
Captive and others
Coal production from captive and other miners till now in FY’23 stood at 46.8 mnt, rising 59% y-o-y. Monthly production for August was 8 mnt, up by 27%.
It is to be noted that 37 captive and commercial mines are currently in operation, while 11 additional new mines will start operations this year.
The government has set a production target from captive and commercial mines at 142 mnt for FY’23.
Outlook
In September, coal production is expected to increase as WCL and SCCL will recover from the negative impact of rains. However, uncertainty regarding mining activity prevails due to monsoon.
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