Coal India net up 19% on sales, better prices

Helped by strong sales and better prices, but narrowly missed market expectations

Kolkata-based Coal India Ltd (CIL) has posted a 18.7 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 3,078 crore during the second quarter of the financial year 2012-13 ended on September 30, as against Rs 2,593 crore during the same period last financial year.

Meanwhile, the net sales for the period under review also increased 11 per cent to Rs 14,572 crore compared to Rs 13,140 crore during the second quarter of financial year 2011-12.

The Maharatna major has also posted a 11 per cent rise in production to 89 million tonne (mt) during the quarter, against 80.3 mt last year. On a year-on-year basis, other income for the quarter also zoomed 17.2 per cent to Rs 2,092.85 crore against Rs 1,786 crore during the same quarter last fiscal.

On the other hand, e-auction prices dropped by Rs 153 per tonne to Rs 2,282 per tonne, as against Rs 2,435 per tonne during 2011-12.

“During this quarter, there was an impact of the National Coal Wage Agreement (NCWA) and also a decrease in e-auction prices. This happened due to the softening of international prices, as e-auction customers like cement firms have opted for international coal,” said S Narsing Rao, chairman and managing director, CIL. Average e-auction price per tonne for the quarter also dropped by more than Rs 100 to Rs 2282.

During the quarter, the firm has increased 20 MT of supplies to fuel supply agreement holders, as a result of which the overall fuel supply for power utilities was also up 13.1 per cent by 8.7 MT, from 66.4 MT last year to 75.09 MT during the second quarter of this fiscal. There was an increase in the supply of average rakes per day by the Railways’ to 162.6 rakes per day, against 144.5 rakes during last year.

“Increased rake availability has helped us to liquidate more than 23.42 MT during the first six months,” Rao added. The firm had started the financial year with a stock of 70.88 MT, while it came down to 47.64 MT by September.

Rao also expressed confidence that CIL will be able to meet its production target of 470 MT during the fiscal. Coal offtake for the quarter too showed an 8.1 per cent rise during Q2 to 101.59 MT, against 94.02 MT.