CIL posts 9.9% output growth in Q4

KOLKATA: Coal India Limited (CIL) recorded an all time high of 84.36 Million Tonnes (MTS) coal output during March 2020 posting 6.5 per cent growth compared to 79.19 MTS that it reported in March 2019. Producing 3.85 MTS on 30 March, CIL has set up a new record for the highest ever production in a day since inception.

The company closed the fiscal 2019-20 with an annual coal production of 602.14 MTS achieving 91 per cent of the target. Coming back strongly in the last quarter of FY20, CIL clocked a robust 9.9 per cent production growth compared to same quarter 2018-19. The Maharatna coal mining behemoth produced 213.71 MTS of coal during January-march 2020, an increase of 19.26 MTS in volume terms compared to 194.45 MTS that the company reported for Q4 of FY19.

“After the company's production was severely impeded on account of excess and prolonged monsoon during the first half of the fiscal, we could recover much of the lost ground in the second half ” said an official of the company adding “CIL as whole produced 120.28 MTS more coal in H2 than it did in H1.”

Against 240.93 MT production during April-september 2019, CIL produced 361.21 MTS in the next six months from October 2019 to March 2020.

Two of the CIL'S subsidiaries Northern Coalfields Limited and Western Coalfields Limited surpassed their respective annual production targets of 2019-20, achieving 102 per cent and 103 per cent of their respective targets. While NCL produced 108.05 MTS for the fiscal, WCL'S output was 57.64 MTS. SECL with 1.08 MTS, CCL0.79 MTS, WCL -0.50 MTS, NCL -0.41 MTS and ECL -0.26 MTS have recorded their highest single day production during the year. Importantly, not a single coal fired power plant in the country is in critical or supercritical condition for want of coal on March 31, 2020.

Thermal Power Plants of the country are flush with coal stocks with 44.68 MTS sufficient for 28 days. Many of the thermal plants have requested CIL to regulate coal supplies to them.

Besides ensuring steady supply to power sector, CIL liquidated around 91 per cent of its 5143 arrear rakes to non-power sector consumers pertaining to years 2017-18 and 2018-19. 4660 backlog rakes have been cleared during the fiscal.

Coal India's pithead stock has risen to highest ever 74.56 MTS offering a comfortable buffer during the ensuing summer months.