• Data showed that coal offtake improved by 2.41 percent in December as it settled at 52.56 MT as opposed to 51.32 MT in November 2020

• The exclusive e-auction for non-power fetched a premium of 23 percent over the notified price in December 2020

New Delhi: Coal India Ltd's (CIL) coal production has registered a jump of 13 percent in December 2020 in comparison to November 2020, data sourced from the Ministry of Coal showed. While coal output stood at 51.69 Million Tonnes (MT) in November, it rose to 58.33 MT in December 2020. However, even as production has showed significant improvement, coal offtake and coal dispatch to the power sector by CIL have clocked a nominal increase, according to official data.

Coal offtake improves 2.41%, coal dispatch to power sector up 2.20%

Data showed that coal offtake improved by 2.41 percent in December as it settled at 52.56 MT as opposed to 51.32 MT in November 2020. The figure was at 53.68 MT in December 2019. Coal dispatch by Coal India to the power sector was at 40.25 MT in December, up from 39.38 MT in November 2020, registering an increase of 2.20 percent. The coal dispatch to power sector in December 2019 was 43.04 MT. The numbers show that demand for coal from the power sector is yet to take off and reach pre-Covid-19 levels.

Coal offtake & dispatch to power sector remains negative for April-Dec period

According to the data, coal offtake for the April-December period of 2020 saw a decline of 1.9 percent year-on-year as it settled at 409.70 MT as opposed to 417.54 MT in the year-ago period. Similarly, coal dispatch to power sector by CIL in the April-December period of the last year registered a decline of 5.3 percent at 318.04 MT in comparison to 335.92 MT recorded in the same period of 2019.

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Coal production by CIL registered an increase of 1.1 percent in the 9-month period at 392.85 MT as opposed to 388.43 MT in the corresponding period of 2019.

Coal allocated under spot e-auction fetches 40% premium over notified price

Coal allocated under spot e-auction by Coal India fetched a premium of 40 percent over the notified price in December 2020. For the period April-December 2020, the coal PSU managed to command a premium of 23 percent over the notified price, the official data showed. The exclusive e-auction for non-power fetched a premium of 23 percent over the notified price in December 2020 and 9 percent in the April-December period. 

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