Coal news and updates

CIL’s y-o-y production growth at 9.3% till Feb 15 (headline)

Coal India Ltd (CIL) has reported a 9.3% yearly growth in coal production till February 15, 2015-16, even though three of its major subsidiaries showed a negative growth so far this month, according to data available with ICMW.

Total coal production till February 15 stood at 452 million tons (mt), which is slightly below the 466.16 mt level targeted for the period under consideration (April 1 to February 15), the data shows.

In the month of February, production stood at 25.70 mt (till February 15), about 96% of the target of 26.90 mt. The February performance so far shows a marginal growth if compared with the same period of the previous month (January 15, 2016).

However, on an annual basis, February performance shows a production growth of only 3.9%, much below the 22% growth reported for the same period last month (i.e. January 1-15).

Moreover, three of the major subsidiaries of CIL have reported a negative annual growth in February so far. These are Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) at -3.6%, South Eastern Coalfields Ltd (SECL) at -1.3% and Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) at -0.1%.

Meanwhile, coal off-take till February 15 was 460.91 mt, below the target of 474.87 mt, but 9.3% higher on an annual basis.

Off-take during the month (till February 15) was 23.31 mt, which was 96% of the target of 24.38 mt. The growth in off-take this month has been 2.0% year-on-year. This, again, is much below the 17.1% growth (y-o-y) achieved during the same period of the previous month (January 1-15).

Total overburden (OBR) removal till February 15 this year has been 997.38 mn cubic metres (cum), which is higher than the target of 892.21 mn cum. OBR has shown a stupendous growth of 33% y-o-y.

In the month of February, CIL achieved 55.40 mm cum of OBR (till February 15), against the target of 45.01 mn cum, the data shows.

CIL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Sutirtha Bhattacharya has attributed the jump in production in 2015-16 to the high growth in OBR, saying that the latter would ensure continued growth in output this year.