Coal news and updates

India’s captive blocks’ Dec output up 4% m-o-m

Coal production from the captive blocks in India edged up 4.10% to 4.31 million tons (mt) in January 2016 compared to 4.14 mt in December 2015, according to provisional data available with ICMW.

Captive coal blocks include those allotted via e-auction in 2015 and also that of Tata Steel and the blocks in operation in Meghalaya.

However, in January 2016, coal production from the captive blocks was down 24.51% from 5.72 mt recorded in the same month last year (January 2015). The production by captive mines was 55.04% of the target of 7.83 mt set for the month.

During the first 10 months (April-January) of 2015-16, coal production from the captive blocks stood at 33.35 mt, nearly 38% lower compared to 53.56 mt produced in the same period of last fiscal.

The target for coal production from captive blocks in 2015-16 is 94 mt and ICMW understands that the target would not be met as a number of mines that were auctioned at the beginning of 2015 are yet to start production.