Coal news and updates

Gap between Coal India output and target widens further

The gap between Coal India's (CIL) production and target has been ever widening, and has reached a level where the average coal stock at power plants has dipped to just around 12 days.

CIL, between April 2013 and January 2014, missed its production target by 17 million tonnes, and supply target by 15 million tonnes. Company officials were quick to blame the shortfall on strikes, law and order situation, excessive heat and rainfall, and pollution issues.

This has resulted in a fall in coal stocks and power shortage. What's alarming is that 30% of the power plants have stocks that will barely last seven days, and 18 have coal stocks that won't even last four days, according to the Central Electric Authority (CEA).

The CEA has attributed the problem largely to short supply of coal by the coal monopoly.

The National Load Despatch Centre, the organisation that manages electricity flow in the country, has calculated a peak shortfall of about 4,000 mw during the same time. In fact, during late January, peak power supply shortfall had even touched 5,000 mw.

Coal India was supposed to produce 383 million tonnes between April 2013 and January 2014, but it managed about 367 million tonnes and missed the target by 5%. It achieved a marginal 3.2% growth during the period against the previous corresponding period, while one of its large subsidiaries Western Coalfields saw production dip by about 8% in the same time.

On the supply side, the company managed to sell 386 million tonnes against its target of 401 million tonnes. Central Coalfields, Western Coalfields and North-Eastern Coalfields saw negative growth of about 3.4%, 3.9% and 27%, respectively.

CIL may also lose 17 million tonnes of production due to imposition of moratorium on expansion of production capacity by the Ministry of Environment and Forest. The moratorium has been imposed on two coalfields - Singrauli Coalfield in Madhya Pradesh under Northern Coalfields and Jharsuguda in Orissa under Mahanadi Coalfields.

Source: The Economic Times