Coal news and updates

The Indian government-owned coal mining and refining corporation Coal India Limited, on Tuesday, said it will reduce its manpower by 5% every year for the next 5-10 years to reduce costs. The company will also close unviable mines.

The announcement has come just a day after Coal India saw its profit for the fiscal year 2020-21 (FY21) fall by 23.9% due to low demand from both the power and metal sectors amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is a steep fall for the CIL as it battles falling coal demand.

 

The company's income fell by 8.5 per cent during the last fiscal. During 2020-21, the total income was Rs 93,818 crore. Its revenue from operations also saw a decline of 6.3 per cent year on year and was Rs 90,026 crore during FY21.

During the year, CIL suffered a decline in demand of coal majorly from its power customers. Electricity demand fell as much as 24 per cent during the peak demand summer months of FY21 due to Covid induced lockdowns, slowdown in commercial and industrial activities. The second wave of Covid in February impacted the coal demand further.

Meanwhile, the Centre will receive Rs 1,426 crore as dividend from Coal India Limited (CIL) after the dry fuel miner on Monday announced an additional final dividend of 35 per cent or Rs 3.5 per share on equity shares of Rs 10 each, an official said.

 

The total dividend payout for FY'21 stood at Rs 16 per share or 160 per cent.

The government is the largest shareholder with control of 66.1 per cent in the CIL. Its shareholding in the company has reduced from 71 per cent due to continuous dilution in small tranches since March 2019.

 

In a corporate presentation meant for analysts, Coal India has claimed that its FY21 coal production stood at 596 MT, and that the company’s target is 1 billion tons by FY23/24. Improvement in manpower productivity, mechanisation and closure of unviable mines to lower costs, evacuation and transportation infrastructure improvement, improved ESG compliance disclosures and aim to be a ‘Net-Zero Emission’ company at the earliest were some of the other near-term objectives outlined by Coal India.

 

Source: https://www.business-standard.com/article/current-affairs