Coal India production increases by 31.6% at 40.51 MT in September

State-owned CIL on Thursday said it produced 40.51 million tonnes (MT) of coal in September, registering a growth of 31.6 per cent over the same month last year.

Coal India (CIL), which accounts for over 80 per cent of domestic coal output, had produced 30.78 MT of the dry fuel in September 2019.

"Coal production at 40.51 MT in September'20, surged ahead by a robust 9.73 MT increase in absolute terms, compared to 30.78 MT in September'19, the growth being 31.6 per cent," CIL said in a statement.

For the first time in the current fiscal, growth was in double digits, with all CIL subsidiaries showing an increase.

"Now that we broke the growth jinx in output and off-take, which were weighed down by the pandemic-induced slowdown, we expect to better our performance in the ensuing months.

"We aim to reclaim as much of the lost ground as possible during the rest of the fiscal," a senior official of the company said.

"Generally, the H2 performance is higher in terms of production and supplies," the official added.

CIL's coal off-take saw a sizeable jump of 11.2 MT during last month.

The company supplied 46.46 MT in September against 35.28 MT in the same month last fiscal, logging a growth of 31.7 per cent, it said.

Supplies to non-power sector logged a growth of 65 per cent at 10.04 MT, compared to 6.08 MT in September last fiscal.

Coal despatch to the power sector grew 24.7 per cent to 36.42 MT, from 29.20 MT earlier.

"Despite COVID-related challenges and inclement monsoon, our production increased by 11 MT and off-take by 12 MT during the second quarter of the present fiscal," an official said.

CIL produced 115 MT of coal in the July-September period against 104 MT in the same quarter last year, showing a growth of 10.6 per cent.

"CIL supplied 134.4 MT of coal during current year's Q2 compared to 122.4 MT same quarter last year registering a growth close to 10 per cent," the statement said.

Supplies to coal fired power utilities during Q2 rose around 3 per cent to 103.2 MT. CIL had supplied 100.29 MT during same quarter last fiscal.

Overall average loading during Q2 at 224.6 rakes per day registered a growth of 23.6 per cent compared to 181.7 rakes loaded in the same quarter last year.

"Loading to power sector at 189.7 rakes/day in Q2 clocked a growth of 16 per cent over last year's Q2," it said.