Coal India hits new record increase of 36 MTs in Q1FY23 production; stock plunges over 2%

1 Jul 2022 , 02:32 PM

Coal India Limited (CIL) ended the April-June quarter FY23 with a historic high of 29% output growth compared to the same quarter FY22, continuing to accelerate its production pace during the current fiscal year.

CIL produced 159.8 million tonnes (MTs) of coal as of the end of the first quarter, which is 35.8 MTs more than the 124 MT output from April to June of this year. All the coal companies CIL witnessed growth during the quarter.

"Such massive growth has never been seen in any Q1 since CIL's inception. Our first-quarter production surge of nearly 36 MTs exceeded the entire annual increase of 26.4 MTs in FY22," said a senior official of the company.

CIL's total annual production has only been higher twice before, both times in the current year's first quarter.

CIL began FY23 with an asking rate of 12.4% in order to meet the current fiscal's 700 MT output target. The company was able to reduce the asking growth rate to 8.3% on the back of a sharp increase in production in Q1. Increased production allows for better stock accumulation.

Coal output for June'22 was 51.6 MTs, representing an unprecedented 29% jump with a volume increase of 11.5 MTs. In June of this year, CIL produced 40 MTs.

With coal demand from power plants increasing, CIL's supplies to the power sector peaked at a new high of 153.2 MTs during the quarter, representing a strong 19.8% increase. In absolute terms, the expansion was 25.3 MTs higher than the previous fiscal's Q1 expansion of 127.9 MTs.

In June 22, supplies to coal-fired power plants increased to 1.713 MTs per day, exceeding the projected requirement of 1.6 MTs by 107%.

Total coal offtake increased by nearly 11% during the quarter ended June 22 to 177.6 MTs. In absolute terms, the increase was 17.3 MTs compared to an offtake of 160.3 MTs in April-June 2021.

At around 2.30 PM, Coal India was trading at Rs181.65 down by Rs3.85 or 2.08% from its previous closing of Rs185.50 on the BSE. The scrip touched day's high and low of Rs186.50 and Rs176.80 respectively, so far.