Coal India Narrowly Misses Production And Offtake Targets Last Fiscal

Coal India Ltd. missed its production and offtake targets by the narrowest margin in 13 years even as even as output and dispatches rose.

Production of the world’s largest coal miner rose 7 percent year-on-year at 607 million tonnes in 2018-19, according to its exchange filing. That compares with its target of 610 million tonnes. Coal supplies to the consuming sectors stood at 608 million tonnes, a growth of 4.8 percent on a yearly basis, against a target of 610 million tonnes.

This is the first time the state-run miner breached the 600-million-tonne mark in production and offtake, the filing said.

The yearly offtake growth number is lower mainly because of inadequate infra evacuation and lower offtake of its two big subsidiaries—Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd. and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd.—due to operational issues, according to Amit Dixit, assistant vice president at Edelweiss Securities.

The dispatches of these two subsidiaries, which contribute 50 percent to Coal India’s overall offtake, grew nearly 3 percent in 2018-19, the filing said.

Morgan Stanley said the miner’s annual numbers were strong and projected its production and dispatch growth for FY20 at 6 percent and 7 percent, respectively.

Other Highlights

• The company’s production in March stood at 79.19 million tonnes, the highest so far in a month since its inception, according to the filing.
• The Maharatna entity clocked its highest ever production of 3.14 million tonnes in a single day (as on March 25).
• Coal India recorded the highest ever dispatch of 2.24 million tonnes in a single day on the last day of financial year 2019.
• The miner supplied 488 million tonnes of coal to thermal power plants in the reported fiscal against 454 million tonnes supplied last year.
• Coal India loaded 255.6 rakes a day on an average to power stations in the 12 months ended March 2019 against 229.8 rakes a day in the year-ago period.