State-run miner Coal India on Monday said its supplies to thermal power plants shot up close to 6% year-on-year to 23.5 million tonnes (MT) during the first fortnight of October, ahead of the festive season.
Comparatively, the supplies to the power plants stood at 22.2 MT in the same period of October 2022.
“The growth was posted at a time of sudden surge in power demand and even as unseasonal rains hit hard the operations in coal bearing areas of CIL’s subsidiaries in the eastern region of the country. Chattishgarh-based SECL (South Eastern Coalfields) also bore the brunt of the inclement weather,” Coal India said in a stock exchange filing.
The coal major’s total supplies at 28.6 MT during the first 15 days of October 2023 logged over 16% y-o-y growth compared to 24.6 MT during the same period last year.
Progressively, CIL supplied nearly 319 MT to the country’s coal-fired plants till October 15 of the current financial year, which was a 12 MT jump in volume terms compared to 307 MT of same period of the last financial year. The 4% y-o-y growth recorded during this period was at par with current year’s annual asking growth rate to power plants.
Coal India was given a demand projection of 610 MT supply to the country’s power plants for FY24, which is 4% more than what it supplied to this sector in FY23. “CIL expects its supplies to exceed the projected target,” according to the stock exchange filing.
On a cumulative basis, CIL’s targeted commitment was 316 MT to power sector till October 15 of FY24 against which the company’s supplies were ahead by 3 MT at 319 MT. CIL is confident of meeting the tasked target to the power sector.
The coal miner’s supplies to all consuming sectors were 389.3 MT during the referred period, posting 9% growth compared to 356.6 MT of same period last fiscal year.
“With no letup in the output tempo, CIL’s progressive production of 360 MTs till 15th October FY24 has logged a robust 11.6% year-on-year growth with 37.6 MT expansion in volume terms. This growth is again higher than the fiscal’s asking rate of around 11%,” the company added.