Coal India's off-take to Power Sector hits a historic high of 493 million tonnes till March 3 of FY22

4 Mar 2022 , 11:35 AM

Coal India Limited’s (CIL) supplies to power sector peaked to a historic high of 493 million tonnes (MTs) on March 3 of the ongoing fiscal breaching the previous high of 491.5 MTs that the Maharatna coal miner recorded in FY19.

CIL could achieve the feat with 28 days still to go before the fiscal’s end, company said in a filing on Friday. During April’21- February’22 CIL supplied 90 MTs more coal to power sector than it did during the corresponding period last year.

CIL’s coal despatch was 488 MTs to this major coal-consuming sector ending February FY22. This represents a sizeable growth of around 23% compared to 398 MTs of same period FY21.

At around 11.38 am, Coal India Ltd was trading at Rs184.40 per piece down by Rs4.5 or 2.38% from its previous closing of Rs188.90 per piece on the BSE.

The major challenge for CIL during the year was adjusting to the unpredictability of the coal demand. The coal-based power generation witnessed a muted growth in previous two fiscals. Then it had risen sharply to 11.2% till January’22 compared to the same period a fiscal ago. However, the company had managed to push additional quantities of coal, it said.

Continuing in the same vein, at 48.4 MTs in February’22, CIL posted a robust 22% growth in supplies to power sector. This was a jump of 8.6 MTs compared to 39.8 MTs of February’21.

Stepping up on supplies in the remainder of March, CIL aims to close the fiscal with 548 MT off-take to power sector as projected by the Central Electricity Authority.

The current coal stock of 43 MT at CIL’s pitheads is expected to increase further by FY’22 end. This would help the company gear up to meet the coal demand of summer which is on the advent.