Coal India Expects To Better Operational Performance Despite Covid-19, Lockdowns
The company expects lower employee costs, controlled receivables and higher e-auction premium in the second half of FY21.
The world’s largest coal miner expects to better its operational performance in the ongoing fiscal over a year ago despite the Covid-19 outbreak and subsequent national lockdowns severely disrupting India’s economy and industrial activity.
That apart, Coal India Ltd. also aims to achieve a trimmed volume target of 660 million tonnes in the year ended March 2021 by working to its fullest capacity “provided there’s sufficient demand”, according to its Chairman and Managing Director Pramod Agrawal.
The company, he told BloombergQuint in an interview, would be aided by lower employee costs, controlled receivables and higher e-auction premium in the second half of the ongoing fiscal.
The Chinese ban on Australian coal, Agrawal said, wouldn’t affect Coal India as it produces very little of the solid fuel for steel companies. Out of the 40-45 million tonnes of coking coal produced, only around 2-5 million tonnes can be consumed by steelmakers, he said.
On the ongoing coal block auctions, Agrawal doesn’t foresee any competition for Coal India for the next five-seven years as companies would take time to enter the production stage well after the grant of licenses.
The company is expected to provide a dividend of Rs 12 per share in the ongoing fiscal, similar to a year ago.
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