Coal news and updates

Coal stocks at Indian power plants near 26 mt

April 2: From a low of about 7.2 million tons (mt) in the middle of October, stocks of coal at power plants monitored by the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) rose close to 26 mt as on March 29, 2015 largely on account of higher domestic production, improved supplies and comparatively low demand for electricity in the country.

Increase in domestic production and improvement in despatches have left a positive impact on coal stocks at 100 thermal power plants (TPS) across India during the last 12 months, industry sources said.

Starting from parameters like critical (stocks of less than 7 days) to a super-critical scenario (stocks of less than 4 days) on a m-o-m basis or on a 12-month scale, the improvement in the picture is noteworthy, though the latter is slightly higher compared to last week’s.

According to CEA data, coal stocks at 100 thermal power plants (TPP) across India rose by 3.28% as on March 29, 2015, compared to that recorded on March 23, 2015.

Compared to February 26, 2015 and March 25, 2014, stocks were up by 28.54% and 28.44% respectively.

Coal stocks at the 100 TPS stood at 25.698 million tons (mt) on March 29, 2015, up from 24.881 mt on March 23, 2015. On the other hand, coal stocks at the 100 TPS stood at 19.992 mt on February 26, 2015 and 20.008 mt on March 25, 2014.

So, in a span of one week, one month and 12 months, there is an increase of 0.817 mt, 5.706 mt and 5.69 mt respectively in coal stocks at power plants.

Moreover, there is status quo of the stock situation in terms of days. CEA data revealed that there were coal stocks for 18 days as on March 29 and 17 days as on March 23 while it was 13 days for February 26. However, coal stocks were marginally down to 14 days on March 25, 2014.

Stocks of imported and domestic coals stood at 2.656 mt and 23.042 mt respectively on March 29, 2015 while imported and domestic coal stocks stood at 2.662 mt and 22.219 mt on March 23, 2015.

The imported and domestic stocks stood at 2.487 mt and 17.505 mt respectively on February 26, 2015. The stocks of imported and domestic coal stood at 1.453 mt and 18.555 mt respectively on March 25, 2014

In terms of days, stocks of coal on March 29 and 23, 2015 were sufficient to run all the plants for 18 and 17 days respectively while on February 26, 2015 the stocks were sufficient to run the plants for 13.

The figures stood at a low of 14 days on March 25, 2014.

Therefore, in the stocks of imported and domestic coals, situations have improved markedly on a m-o-m basis and in the last 12 months as well.

The northward surge in the overall coal stocks situation has also left its positive mark on the number of plants facing a critical coal stocks situation of less than four days, the CEA data revealed.

The number of plants facing critical coal stocks position of less than seven days stood at 12 and 14 respectively on March 29 and March 23, 2015, while the figure was at 19 and 20 respectively for February 26, 2015 and March 23, 2015.

The number of plants facing super critical coal stocks position of less than four days stood at 3 and 2 respectively on March 29 and March 23, 2015, while the figure was at 6 and 9 respectively for February 26, 2015 and March 23, 2015.

So there is marked improvement in critical coal stocks position of less than seven days on a m-o-m basis and yearly basis though there is slight decline in super-critical coal stocks position of less than four days on a weekly basis.

Following table shows the coal stocks position at power plants on various days: