Even as coal demand from the power sector is not steady yet, Coal India’s (CIL) overall coal offtake has increased to 160.4 million tonne (MT) during the first quarter of the current fiscal against 120.8 MT during the corresponding period last fiscal, representing a 33% growth.
CIL’s April-June offtake was also close to 7 MT higher at around 160 MT, clocking a 4.5% growth compared to the April-June quarter in FY20 when the country was yet to get affected by Covid-19. After an encouraging spurt in April, coal-fired electricity generation slowed down in May. But it started accelerating during the last ten days of June again, a CIL executive said.
CIL supplied 126.3 MT of coal to the power sector during the first quarter of the current fiscal, a jump of 34% compared to 94 MT of a similar quarter last fiscal. The PSU miner also posted a 5.6% growth compared to the relative covid-free first quarter of 2019.
Loading through rail mode increased 40% during the first quarter of the fiscal under review with CIL loading an average of 296.7 rakes a day against 211.6 rakes loaded during the same quarter last fiscal. This includes loading from private washeries and goods sheds too. While coal import by domestic coal-based power plants was down by 18% during April-May this fiscal, CEA data indicates that generation by these plants grew by 42% to 167.156 Billion Units (BU) during this period compared to 117.547 BU the same period last fiscal.
Coal imports fell by nearly 11% month-on-month in May at 19.92 MT against 22.27 MT in April. If the non-substitutable quantity comprising coking coal, metallurgical coal, higher GCV coal, anthracite coal, pulverized coal for injection and pet coke which accounted for 6.3 MT is taken out of the equation of the total imports, then the substitution with domestic non-coking coal has been for G11 to G15 grades.
CIL produced 124 MT during the first three months of the ongoing fiscal logging 2.4% growth compared to 121 MT the same quarter last fiscal. Ramping up production would not be a problem for CIL with large volumes of overburden removed, the CIL executive said.
