Coal India Ltd powers quarterly profit by 14% to Rs 3,718 crore

The world’s largest coal miner Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Thursday reported a 13.9 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,718 crore for the quarter to December on the back of higher sales. Net profit came in at Rs 3,262.5 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, Coal India (CIL) said in a filing to BSE.

Net sales during the reporting quarter stood at Rs 18,971.5 crore, an increase of 6.8 per cent yoy. However, total expenses increased to Rs 15,407.5 crore, compared with Rs 14,850.1 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2014-15.

On a stand-alone basis, net profit (after taxes, minority interest and share of profit of associates) of the state-owned firm declined to Rs 672.6 crore as against Rs 695.8 crore in the year-ago period. Total income from operations declined sharply to Rs 36.2 crore, from Rs 74.6 crore a year earlier.

The company further said a joint venture company — Rashtriya Coal Gas Fertilizers Ltd — was incorporated in November last year through an agreement among CIL, the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd, GAIL (India) Ltd and the Fertilizer Corporation of India. “The JV company has an authorised share capital of Rs 50 crore, of which CIL shall hold 26 per cent,” it said, adding that there had been no investment in the JV up to December 31.

Its output in April-December of the current fiscal went up to 373.5 million tonnes (mt), from 342.4 mt a year ago. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production. The stock of the company closed at Rs 305.05 on BSE, down 2.87 per cent from the previous close.

On Coal India Ltd’s performance, the Coal Ministry, in a statement, said the PSU’s coal supplies rose 10.7 per cent in the December quarter. CIL as a whole supplied 137.90 million tonnes (mt) of coal in October-December.

“Interestingly, CIL continued its high-orbit growth in coal supplies for the nine months of April-December 2015, registering a 9.8 per cent growth year-on-year,” it said. “The company in recent times has stepped up co-ordination with the Railways in a bid to get more rakes, and this appears to have paid off in terms of increased supplies.” Coal India Ltd has been able to maintain the supply growth trajectory despite slowdown in demand for the fuel from coal-fired power utilities, which account for around 77 per cent of its overall coal supplies.

Meanwhile, Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) registered a growth of 12 per cent in production during this fiscal, the highest among all coal companies in the country. An arm of Coal India, CCL is the only coal company in the country to have continued with double digit growth in the dry fuel production in successive years, CMD Gopal Singh said adding that the growth rate of the previous fiscal was 11.3 per cent.

The company has produced 48.998 million tonne of the dry fuel till date as against a target of 60.6 MT for this fiscal, according to a company release. CCL has also established a new record in the dispatch of 50.883 MT output while its stock has come down to 7.67 MT from the April 1, 2010 stock of 16.41 MT.

“These achievements have become possible due to the cooperation and contribution of all stake holders,” Singh said. He committed to the CCL s significant contribution to the CIL s plan of achieving one billion tonne production and dispatch by 2019-20.

The Chairman-cum-Director also announced that all the 19 students of CCL’s Bhurkunda-based Industrial Training Institute were absorbed by Cummins Company. Six Greenfield projects having 40 MT capacity would be expanded to 100 MT, the release said.

CCL, which has a workforce of 44,274 as of January 1, 2016, has disposed of 2044 of the 2447 complaints received by the company s ‘Samadhan Kendra’ (grievance cell), it said. According to an MoU between CCL and Jharkhand government, 15 sports academies and Jharkhand Sports University would be set up phase-wise.

As many as 1,400 children would be selected for training in sports, and hostel and schooling would be provided to them.