Team News Riveting
Kolkata, June 1
Spurred by the revival of coal demand from power sector, Coal India Limited (CIL) scripted the highest ever coal off-take of 55 Million Tonne (MT) for the month of May so far.
As coal supplies surged ahead to 55 MTs in May’21, CIL recorded a whopping 15 MT increase in volume terms against comparable month last year, logging close to 38 per cent growth. Even compared to pre-COVID May’19 the growth was 5.8 per cent when the company’s off-take was 52 MT.
With the appetite for coal signalling healthy recovery, CIL’s supply to power sector at nearly 44 MT in May’21 was up by 41 per cent. The company supplied around 13 MT more to power plants compared to May’20.
Stimulated by increased activity and higher coal consumption stock at thermal power stations of the country fell by 5 MT in the month of April’21 from that of 28.9 MT at the closure of last fiscal. However, increased supplies by CIL in May’21 resulted in the coal stock restored to 29 MT at the coal fired plants. In the ensuing months the company aims to further increase its supplies.
“Understandably due to covid forced lockdown coal supplies suffered during last year but even then, a robust overall 30 MT off-take upsurge during first two months of the current fiscal is an encouraging sign compared to April-May’20. During this period coal off-take to power sector was 23.6 MT more” stated a senior executive of the company.
CIL’s total coal off-take for April-May’21 was 109.2 MT clocking a growth of 38 per cent compared to 79 MT same period year ago. Similarly supply to Power Sector, the largest coal consuming sector, also registered 38 per cent growth. CIL supplied 86.3 MT of coal to power during the first two months of the ongoing fiscal compared to 62.7 MT same period a year ago.
CIL has liquidated 25 MT of coal out of its inventory during Apri-May’21. The company which began FY’22 with close to 100 MTs stock at its pitheads reduced it to 74.3 MT at the end of May’21.
CIL produced 42.1 MT in May’21 and 84 MT in April-May’21 period. CIL is confident of ramping up the production even at short notice when the demand peaks to even higher levels especially with the coal seams exposed. CIL has recorded the second highest over burden removal growth of 17 per cent, in more than a decade, last year.
