CIL jittery over coal ministry’s stiff stock target
The target set by the Union coal ministry of creating 18 days’ coal stock at power plants by November end has made Coal India (CIL) jittery even as the PSU miner says it will keep ramping up production to meet the power sector’s requirements.
A CIL official told FE that production picks up from the second half of the fiscal and gains tempo from the start of the third quarter. CIL has targeted to produce in excess of 2 million tonne a day. The power sector’s daily requirement is around 1.8 MTs a day at the current level of generation. Despatches in the last week of October from CIL and other sources have been to the tune of 2.2 MTs a day, creating 11 MTs of stock equivalent to 6 days’ consumption, as of November 1. So, CIL will need to create roughly around 50-55 MTs of stock at the plants by November end, the official said, but refused to comment on whether it was achievable.
