State-owned coal miner Coal India on Thursday posted the Provisional Production and Off-take Performance of the company and its subsidiary companies for the month of October 2023 and for the period April 2023- October 2023. Coal India said that it posted a strong 12 per cent on-year production growth ending October FY24. CIL produced 394 million tonnes (MTs) of coal in the April-October 2023 period with a 42 MT increase compared to 352 MTs during the year ago period. The output growth was higher than the annual asking growth rate of 11 per cent, it said.
“CIL has come a long way from a production of 79 MTs in its year of inception, in 1975, to 703 MTs ending FY 2023. And, we are on course in pursuit of the challenging output target of 780 MTs in the current financial year,” said PM Prasad, Chief, CIL in the company’s Foundation Day event on 1st November.
Production by Coal India shot up by 8 MTs in October alone to 61 MTs, logging 15 per cent growth. On a comparative basis the same in October 2022 was 53 MTs. Meanwhile, in the seven month span of the current financial year, CIL’s supplies to the power sector have risen to 346 MTs, a 15 MT increase compared to 331 MTs in the same period last year, registering a growth of 4.5 per cent. The quantum supplies to the power sector were 4.7 MTs more than the progressive commitment of 341.3 MTs till October.
CIL said that the company is confident of breaching the annual supply target of 610 MTs to the power sector. “In the festive month of October even as the demand for power spikes up CIL’s supplies to thermal plants grew by 11 per cent to 50.8 MTs compared to 45.8 MTs of October 2022. Increase in volume terms during the month was 5 MTs despite the rains lashing across the mines in CIL’s subsidiaries based in the eastern part of the country ECL, BCCL, CCL and partly NCL during the first week of October,” it said.
CIL’s total coal off-take clocking 9.5 per cent growth raced to 422.3 MTs for the progressive period ending October FY 2024. The supplies, it said, were 36.6 MTs higher than the year ago period when the off-take was 385.7 MTs.
For the month of October 2023, total coal despatch was 61.6 MTs with nearly 8 MT increase. Overall supplies registered 14.7 per cent growth during the month compared to 53.7 MTs in October 2022.
Among the eight core sectors of the country, CIL said, coal production grew 16.1 per cent year-on-year in September 2023, the highest of all the sectors. CIL’s contribution was significant in this growth. Coal stock at CIL’s pitheads, meanwhile, stood at 41 MTs ending October, almost 14 MTs more than the same period last year providing a comfortable buffer to meet any increase in future demand.
