Coal India's Production Likely To Drop Below 600 Million Tonnes In FY21
Coal India's output is set to fall for the second consecutive year.
World's largest miner Coal India Ltd. is likely to post marginal contraction of its output for the year 2020-21 by 5-6 million tonnes in 2020-21 as its production will below the 600-million mark, officials with knowledge of the matter told PTI.
In 2019-20, the miner produced 602 MT down from 606.9 MT in 2018-19 when it registered its highest production.
It will be the second year in a row when the miner will register a contraction. The miner had projected a 660 MT production target and by mid-year the company had been expecting to attain 630-640 MT of output.
Officials attributed Covid-19 disruptions as the key factor behind lower demand resulting in a stockpile building up, compelling the mining giant to moderate output.
Offtake for the year is expected to be around 577 MT.
Inventory with Coal India stood at around 77.8 MT as of February-end, up from 66.8 MT at the end of January 2021.
Domestic power plants are well stocked with coal supplies. Coal stocks at power plants stood at 31.9 MT at the end of February, enough to last 17 days. This has resulted in a fall in coal offtake for the third straight month. Coal offtake fell by 7% on year during February.