Coal India hardens after production rises 14% in Feb

Coal India rallied 3.12% to Rs 173.50 after the state-run coal producing major announced decent provisional production and offtake figures for February 2020.

Coal India, in its exchange filing, said that its total provisional coal production in February 2020 stood at 66.26 million tonnes as compared to 58.05 million tonnes in February 2019, registering a 14.2% jump.

Provisional coal offtake grew 6.8% to 54.97 million tonnes in February 2020 as against 51.46 million in February 2019.

Union Minister of Coal and Mines, Pralhad Joshi, on 19 February 2020, said that India will stop importing thermal coal from financial year 2023-24. The Minister also said that various ways and means were discussed with key stakeholders to achieve 1 billion tonnes (BT) coal production target by Coal India (CIL) by Financial Year 2023-24.

The Minister of Coal will coordinate with Indian Railways and Shipping Ministry and enable Coal India evacuate more coal by 2030. Stressing upon the diversification in the Indian Coal sector, the Minister said that ideas have also been mooted that CIL could think of coming up with the state of the art pithead thermal power plants to transform it into an integrated energy company.

The minister also said that CIL could generate 5 GW of solar power by FY 2023-24 and could diversify into coal gasification with a target of 50 million tonnes by 2030 enabling a sustainable energy mix for the country.

The scrip fell 3.33% to close at Rs 168.25 on Friday, 28 February 2020.

Coal India's consolidated net profit tanked 14.1% to Rs 3,923.87 crore on a 7.8% drop in net sales to Rs 21,566.41 crore in Q3 December 2019 over Q3 December 2018.

Coal India (CIL) is a coal mining company, which is engaged in the production and sale of coal. The firm offers products, including coking coal, semi coking coal, non-coking coal, washed and beneficiated coal, middlings, rejects, coal fines/coke fines, and tar/heavy oil/light oil/soft pitch.

As of 31 December 2019, the Government of India held 69.12% stake in the company.

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