Coal India sets 482 mn tonne target for 2013-14

Ambitious goal set even as state-owned coal major is likely to marginally fall short of the current fiscal's 464 million tonne target

Coal India (CIL) has set an ambitious 482 million tonne production target for 2013-14,  even as the state-owned coal major is likely to marginally fall short of the current fiscal's 464 million tonne target.

The off-take target for the next financial is set at 492 MT. Coal India Limited (CIL) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with its administrative ministry – Ministry of Coal (MoC) - for its key performance areas.

"As per the MoU for the fiscal 2013-14, MoC has fixed a coal production and off-take targets of 482 Million tonnes and 492 million tonnes respectively against last year's coal production and off-take target of 464.1 million tonnes and 470 million tonnes respectively," the company said in a statement.

The required growth rates for achieving coal production and off-take targets of 2013-14 are about 7.11 per cent and 5.80 per cent, respectively.  

Meanwhile, officials indicated CIL is set to miss the current fiscal's 464 million tonne target by a whisker, due to strike and other issues. In the first 11 months of the current fiscal CIL has recorded a production of about 398 million tonnes.

However, the company is expected to meet the off take target of  470 million tonnes on the back of improved rake availability. To attain the off-take target next fiscal, CIL has sought 212.2 railway rakes per day, on an annual basis for 2013-14, against the average availability of 167.7 rakes per day during 2011-12 and about 184 rakes per day during 2012-13.

CIL, which accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production, has been under pressure to ramp up production. The demand supply gap is estimated to go up to 200 million tonnes in 2016-17. The gap between the demand and domestic supply is to be met through imports. Also, in an effort to infuse competition in the coal sector, the government has proposed to take up an exercise of restructuring of Coal India.