Situation remains uncertain as some states still under lockdown: Coal India

Coal India (CIL), which is already reeling under the pandemic stress causing adverse impact on demand and supply of dry fuel, on Friday said the situation will remain uncertain in July-September as some states are resorting to fresh lockdowns.

The state-owned miner produced 18.05 million tonnes (MT) of coal from July 1 to July 16 against 19.61 MT produced in the same period last year.

The coal production in some of the major mines is still affected due to high coal stock and less offtake. Pithead stock of CIL as on July 16 was 72.88 MT as compared to 33.17 MT during the last year same period, it said.

However, with concentrated efforts, a growth of 16.7 per cent was registered in overburden (OB) removal during July 1 to July l6 as compared to the same period last year.

Due to continuing lockdown and various guidelines issued by central and state governments, normalcy has not been restored yet, affecting coal production and despatch, Coal India said in a filing to the BSE.

CIL produced 51.32 MT of coal from March 15 to March 31.

In view of fast spreading coronavirus, the government had announced a nationwide lockdown from March 25, which was further extended in phases.

Despatch of coal was adversely affected in the last week of March resulting into mounting coal stock at pithead. Coal stock as on March 31 was 74.629 MT, compared to 54.155 MT on March 31, 2019.

Restriction imposed on movement of vehicles badly affected supply of explosives in the mines.

Further, disruption in movement affected availability of manpower, spares parts for heavy earth moving machinery (HEMM) which impacted the production at the mines, it said.

Coal India had produced 121.01 MT of coal during April 1-June 30, compared to 136.94 MT during the same period last year.

The continued lockdown during this period (April 1- June 30) had an adverse impact on coal dispatch from CIL.

With decrease in power demand by about 30 per cent and shut down of many industries in non-power sector due to lockdown, the offtake of CIL decreased to 12O.62 MT as compared to 153.49 MT during the same period last year.

Pithead stock on May 31 reached up to 78.093 MT during this period (April 1-June 30), it said adding that the stock at power plants also remained high during this period.

Supply of explosives was affected due to restriction in inter-state movement.

The explosive supplier faced the problem of raw material and other logistics for manufacturing of explosives, which in turn affected timely supply of explosives to the subsidiary companies of CIL.

Contractual as well as departmental production during this period (April 1-June 30) was affected due to shortage of manpower due to restriction in movement.

Downtime of the machines increased due to non-availability of spares due to restriction in inter-state transport, it said.

Consignment of HEMM like dozer, grader, dumper and excavator could not be delivered on time. As there was less demand of coal during this period, efforts were made to maximise overburden Removal, CIL said.