State-run coal miner Coal India marginally fell short of its annual production target for the last fiscal as it produced 773.6 million tonnes in the last financial year against the target of 780 million tonnes.
The coal behemoth, however, registered a 10 per cent year-on-year output growth in FY24 over a high base of 703.2 million tonnes (mt) in FY23. “This is the first instance that the company recorded double digit growth in two successive years since its inception,” CIL said in a stock exchange filing on Monday.
Notably, Coal India Chairman PM Prasad, during the Q3FY24 results conference call in February, had said the miner might witness an output shortfall of around 10 mt against the coal production target for FY24, adding it would try to “minimise” the output gap.
In the stock exchange filing, CIL said all its coal producing arms recorded positive growth in the last fiscal, and five of them, Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL), Central Coalfields (CCL), Northern Coalfields (NCL), Western Coalfields (WCL) and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL), stepped over their respective annual targets for the second consecutive year. “Mahanadi Coalfields, the Odisha-based CIL subsidiary, has emerged the country’s first coal producing company to have breached 200 mt with production at 206.1 mt,” it said.
In the previous two financial years, CIL increased its production by 151 mt . This was higher by 22.6 mt than the combined increase of 128.4 mt achieved in six years – from FY16 to FY22. Coal production of 88.6 mt in March 2024 was the highest ever for any month till date.
Total coal supplies hit 753.5 mt during FY24, posting 8.5 per cent growth year-on-year. The 58.8 mt volume increase came over 694.7 mt of FY23.
Supplies to the power sector reached 618.5 mt in the just-concluded fiscal, with a growth of 5.4 per cent y-o-y. CIL supplied 8.5 mt more coal to power plants than its assigned commitment of 610 mt for FY24.
Concurrently, supplies to the non-power sector (NPS) rose to 135 mt with a y-o-y jump of 26.9 mt , registering around 25 per cent growth. CIL had supplied 108.1 mt to NPS in FY23.
On the back of better quality coal supplies, grade conformity improved to 76 per cent during FY24 from 70 per cent over FY23.
Coal inventory
Coal India ended last fiscal with an inventory of around 90 mt, which was 20.7 mt more than the previous fiscal – a near 30 per cent increase.
On an average the coal miner loaded 292.2 rakes per day during FY24 against 273.6 rakes per day of FY23, registering a growth of 6.8 per cent. One rake load of coal is approximately 4,000 tonnes.
Coal India’s production and off-take are pegged at 838 mt for FY25.