Coal India Revises Production Target to 650-600 Million Tonne for FY21
August 9, 2020 - Coal India, the world’s largest coal miner, has revised its production target downwards to 650-660 million tonne for the fiscal year against the initial production target of 710 million tonne due to Covid-related disruptions.
Coal India chairman-cum-managing director Pramod Agrawal said at least 650 to 660 million tonne of coal was expected to be produced by the end of this financial year, ensuring that coal shortage was not felt by the industry.
“Covid-19 has adversely affected demands. However, now demand is returning. We expect it will improve further,” Agrawal said at an e-session organised by the Bharat Chamber of Commerce on Saturday.
Demands for coal fell nearly 16-17% during the first half of FY21 compared to the same period last financial year. In the first few days of August, the company has witnessed around 13-14% growth in demands over the same period last year. Coal offtake was expected to improve further from September, Agrawal said.
He stressed that the progress of the Jharia Coal Project in Jharkhand for the mining of coking coal was temporarily stalled due to Covid-19 disruptions. Till July, Coal India’s production and coal offtake saw de-growth of 9.7% and 18%, respectively, at 158.37 million tonne and 164.02 million tonne, respectively.
Currently, Coal India is working on offering the mineral to consumers who depend on imports in the Western and Southern regions. The company has recently introduced a special spot e-auction scheme for importers.
In contrast to apprehensions that commercial mining may hurt interests of Coal India, Agrawal said it would help introduce, “a market-linked price mechanism” and this would only benefit the state-run coal miner as its ‘regulated’ price would be far cheaper.
On the coal quality issues, he stated that the third-party coal quality assessment system had to be reformed and, in this regard, efficient international quality control consultants would be hired for more credible results.