Coal India powers output by 7% to 607 mt in 2018-19

KOLKATA: Coal India Limited (CIL) for the first time has breached the 600 million tonne (mt) mark in coal production and off-takeending FY 2019, clocking growths of 7 per cent and 4.8 per cent respectively. The Maharatna coal mining giant had produced 607 mt coal during 2018-19 almost reaching its MoU target of 610 mt.

The 7 per cent growth in coal production during the referred period is almost three-fold increase compared to last fiscal's output growth of 2.4 per cent. The volume increase in coal production during the referred period has been a robust 39.5 mt against previous year's production of 567.37 mt.

CIL scaled a new peak in production in the month of March 2019 producing 79.19 mt — the highest so far in a month since inception. In doing so, the PSU coal mining monolith clockedhighest ever production of 3.14 mt in a single day (as on 25 March).

The upbeat production tempo of the world's largest coal producer in the recent years was evident in the fact that it leaped from the 500 mt production to 600 mt in a mere three years, whereas it took the company seven years to migrate from 400 mt production to that of 500 mt.

For FY19 ECL, CCL, NCL and WCL all surpassed their respective production targets. NCL went past its production target of 100 mt five days ahead of the closure of the fiscal, in the process becoming the third subsidiary of CIL to join the coveted 100 mt producing companies after SECL and MCL.

In another new high SECL became the first subsidiary company of CIL to cruise over 150 mt production mark. ECL and WCL have become 50 mt plus companies for the first time. Coal supplies to the consuming sectors touched a new high at 608 mt during 2018-19 coming close to its MoU target of 610 mt. The increase in absolute figures is 28 mt compared to last year's off-take of 580.29 mt registering a growth of 4.8 per cent.

CIL recorded the highest ever despatch of 2.24 mt in a single day on the last day of the fiscal 2019.

Scripting a new high in coal supplies to thermal power plants of the country, ending FY 2019, CIL's sources supplied 488 mt of coal against 454 mt supplied last fiscal the increase in volume terms beingapproximately 34 mt clocking a year-on-year growth of 7.4 per cent.