Coal news and updates

Coal India Q4 profit falls 4.41% to Rs4,238.55 crore

Coal India Ltd (CIL)’s net profit for the quarter ended March fell by 4.41% from a year earlier to Rs.4,238.55 crore as realization from the more lucrative e-auction sales dropped.
Total revenue increased 3.7% to Rs.21,339.55 crore from a year earlier. Total expenses jumped 3.8% to Rs.16,072.72 crore. The revenue growth was ahead of market expectations, said analysts.
CIL’s operating profit increased 3.4% to Rs.5266.83 crore.
“The growth in both revenue and operating profit were ahead of expectations,” said Rahul Dholam, an analyst at Angel Broking Pvt. Ltd, in a statement.
The widening of operating margin was “led by higher e-auction volumes and better cost absorptions during the quarter”, he said.
During the March quarter, the company sold 46.91 million tonnes (mt) of coal through the electronic-auctions, and generated Rs.11,492 crore of revenue from this route. Realization from e-auctions was at Rs.2,450 per tonne. CIL did not publish comparative numbers.
The miner produced 151.86 mt of coal in the fourth quarter, which was 6% higher than the same period last year. Offtake increased 3.6% to 134.72 mt.
CIL has a target of producing 550 mt of coal in fiscal 2015-16. The national miner, which accounts for around 80% of India’s coal demand, produced 494 mt in 2014-15, missing its target of 507 mt.
According to Angel Broking’s estimates, CIL is likely to produce 534 mt of coal in the current fiscal.
“Coal production increase in absolute terms in 2014-15 was 31.82 mt, which is the highest ever incremental increase in a single financial year since the inception of the company”, said Sutirtha Bhattacharya, chairman of CIL.
The offtake during the whole year registered a growth of 3.8% to 489.38 mt.

source: http://www.livemint.com