Coal news and updates

CIL’s y-o-y production degrowth at -1.4% till May 15

Coal India Ltd (CIL) has reported a 1.4% yearly de-growth in coal production till May 15, 2016-17, as four of its major subsidiaries showed a negative growth so far this (fiscal) year, according to data available with ICMW.

Total coal production till May 15, 2016, stood at 60.02 million tons (mt), which is slightly below the 60.89 mt level achieved during the same period last year (April 1 to May 15), the data shows.

Among the CIL subsidiaries, Eastern Coalfields (ECL), Central Coalfields (CCL), Western Coalfields (WCL) and South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) have suffered a drop in production this year vis-à-vis last year. In contrast, Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL), Northern Coalfields (NCL) and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) have reported a positive yearly growth during the period under review.

However, the percentage de-growth till May 15 is less significant than the 3.4% negative growth reported in April 2016 over the same month last year. This indicates that there could be a slight uptick in May 2016.

Asked to comment on the falling performance, an official at CCL recently told ICMW that there has been no plan to regulate output. Rather, the miner’s (CCL’s) production in April was impacted by shortages of explosives, he said.

Meanwhile, in line with the negative trend in production, CIL’s coal off-take was also down by 1% at 64.17 mt till May 15, 2016, compared to 64.85 mt in the same period last year.

Overburden removal (OBR), however, continued to show positive growth till May 15, 2016, even though the rate of growth slowed down considerably. OBR removal was reported at 151.54 million cubic metres (mcm) till May 15, which is 13.50% higher than 133.42 mcm achieved during the same period last year.