Coal India production jumps 8.8% to 321 mn tonnes in Apr-Nov

Coal India's production jumped 8.8 per cent to 321.38 mt during April-November period of the current fiscal, while offtake soared by 9.8 per cent.

Coal India (CIL) produced 295.40 million tonnes (mt) during the same period last year, a company official said.

The impetus by the country's largest coal producer on off-take also yielded result as the volume growth during the period was at 30.44 million tonnes.

Coal offtake was 341.13 mt during the said period as compared to 310.70 mt in the same period of 2014-15, a growth of 9.8 per cent.

Production during the month of November was 47.47 mt, up 6.79 per cent over the corresponding month of 2014-15. While, offtake jumped to 45.33 million tonne, a growth of 9 per cent over November, last year.

"After steadying the growth in the twin performance parameters of production and offtake, our aim is to supply quality coal to our consumers. Sizing, washing and grade matching our coal supply are primary tasks before us," the official said.

Coal stock inventory at coal fired power utilities in the country is also at comfortable levels. As of November, there is not a single power utility in the country at super critical level and only one at critical level, with coal stocks at thermal power stations at a comfortable level of about 27 mt which is 21 days of stock.

The average coal stock during the comparative period of last year was 7 days with 50 power utilities at critical level of which 30 were in super critical stock level.