Coal India output rises 4% to 64 MT in February

State-owned CIL produced 64.3 million tonnes of coal in February, registering a growth of nearly 4 per cent compared to the year-ago period.

Coal India Ltd (CIL) had produced 61.9 MT of coal in the corresponding month of previous fiscal.

In a statement on Tuesday, the company said that stepping up its output tempo, it produced 64.3 MT of coal in February.

On a month-on-month basis, CIL's average production increased to 2.3 MT per day in February. So, despite being three days lesser than January, the sequential production in February was at par with the previous month. CIL's all out efforts are focused on ending FY'22 in the realm of 630 MT, according to the statement.

CIL's production at 542.4 MT during April-February period of FY'22 was a historic high for this period. Coal output surged ahead 27.3 MT in absolute terms on a year-on- year comparison.

"The company expects to post the highest ever production by the closure of FY'22, going past the previous high of 607 MT recorded in FY'19," the company said.

CIL's off-take in February has scored a strong 12 per cent double-digit growth at 57.4 MT against same month last year. The gain in absolute terms was 6.2 MT.

Till February of the current fiscal, CIL's total off-take was nearly 600 MT. Only once earlier, the off-take crossed that mark when the company despatched 608 MT in FY'19, which is the highest to the date.

With a sizeable volume increase of 85.8 MT over 514 MT of the same period last year, CIL's off-take growth during April-February was 16.7 per cent.

CIL's subsidiaries are pushing hard to scale up the production and off-take.

MCL in a first has reached 150 MT production mark on February 27. The pace is moving into a higher pitch with the past records being outdone, as per the statement.

CIL has been able to liquidate its stock to the tune of 56.7 MT till February, the highest stock liquidation in any year so far. Coal inventory at CIL's pitheads was 42.5 MT at February-end which at the beginning of the fiscal was 99 MT.

CIL accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic output of the dry fuel.