Coal India Q1 production up 15.2% to 137 mn tonne

Coal India Limited (CIL) today said it has registered a 15.2 per cent growth in coal production during the first quarter ended June 2018 to 136.87 million tonne while supply to power plants also jumped by 15.4 per cent to 122.84 million tonne.

"Clearly the focus is on higher coal output and increased supplies and there had been a consistent growth both in coal production and supplies to consumers during all the three months of the first quarter," a senior official of Coal India said.

While the offtake was spurred by higher rake loading, the overall coal offtake zoomed to 153.43 million tonne at the end of June, translating into a growth of 11.7 per cent.

Coal supplies to power stations stood at 122.84 million tonne during the quarter.

The number of power stations having critical stock has come down from 30 in April to 16 as on June-end, the company said.

"Our aim is to shore up coal stocks at thermal power plants to the normative stock of 22 days requirement and see that the coal-fired power plants do not suffer for want of coal. We have also requested the thermal power plants to perk up their coal stocks, the official said.

Power sector accounted for 80 per cent of coal supplies during the period.

Coal India has been working with the Coal and Railways ministries for enhanced rake loading of 217.04 rakes per day on an average to the power sector during the first quarter of FY'19 against 189.9 rakes in the same period last year, registering a growth of 14.9 per cent.

The company produced 44.88 million tonne in June 2018, reflecting an increase of 5.20 million tonne in absolute terms over corresponding month of last year.

The company liquidated 16.56 MT of its pit head coal stock during the first three months of the current fiscal.