Coal India remains bullish on performance

Coal India on Friday said it is optimistic about the company's financial performance despite softening international prices.

Average international coal price has gone down from USD 75 per tonne to USD 48 in just a few months.

E-auction price realisation for Coal India was Rs 2155 a tonne, a slump of nearly Rs 600 per tonne in the first quarter ended June 2019, compared to the preceding quarter (Jan-Mar 2019) average realisation of Rs 2754 a tonne.

"Our price is still 40 per cent lower than international prices," Coal India chairman A K Jha said when asked about easing coal prices.

The profit for 2018-19 was Rs 17462.18 crore, up from Rs 7038.44 crore in the previous year.

Coal India was planning to produce 660 million tonne in the current fiscal, an incremental production of 53 million tonne over 2018-19.

However, law and order issues will hold the key for production performance in some of its subsidiaries.

Mahanadi Coalfields and Bharat Coking Coalfields were facing issues related to law and order.

"Issues pertaining to South Eastern Coalfields had been resolved," Jha said.

SECL is the largest coal producing subsidiary of the company.

He expected coal production will increase but monsoon may have some disruptions.

Coal India has also started pushing higher supply to non-power.

Meanwhile, Australia's Minister for Resources and Northern Australia, Matthew Canavan, will visit India from 26 -29 August beginning from Kolkata.

He will meet state Finance and Industry Minister Amit Mitra.