New Delhi: During the month of April, India's total coal production stood at 661.54 lakh tonnes. In contrast, the power sector's estimated approximate coal requirement stands at 762 lakh tonnes in a month, considering that 150 domestic coal-based power plants require around 2.54 MT of coal in a day, according to the Central Electricity Authority. This means that there is a gap of around 100 lakh tonnes between coal production and demand from the power sector. Although stocks are replenished at power plants on a rolling basis and the coal requirement figures do not take into account the stock that exists in reserve with coal miners and power plants and the coal in transit, however, the figures show that there is definitely a gap between coal production and demand. And the situation is hand-to-mouth. Moreover, this does not even take into account the demand for coal from the non-power sector.
While Coal India Ltd (CIL) and its subsidiaries produced 534.7 lakh tonnes of coal, production by Singareni Collieries Company Ltd (SCCL) stood at 53.23 lakh tonnes and production from captive mines touched 73.61 lakh tonnes during the last month, said the Ministry of Coal on Tuesday. The figures come in the backdrop of a power crisis precipitated by a shortage of coal.
As per the provisional statistics of the Ministry of Coal, while the total offtake of coal was 708.68 lakh tonnes during the month, the power sector offtake touched 617.2 lakh tonnes in April. At the same time, offtake to the power sector from Coal India alone stood at 497.39 lakh tonnes.
Coal India has achieved the highest production of 534.7 lakh tonnes during April this year, indicating a 6.02 percent growth. The previous highest-ever coal production was recorded during April 2019, having attained a production of 450.29 lakh tonnes. Similarly, coal offtake touched the figure of 570.55 lakh tonnes in April. The previous highest offtake of coal was recorded in April 2021 with 540.12 lakh tonnes.
The total coal production during the financial year 2021-22 was 7,770.23 lakh tonnes (provisional) compared to 7,160 lakh ton during 2020-21, recording a growth of 8.55 percent. Coal India Ltd's coal production had gone up by 4.43 percent from 5,960.24 lakh tonnes in 2020-21 to 6,220.64 lakh tonnes during the fiscal 2021-22.
SCCL, with an increase of 28.55 percent growth, produced 650.02 lakh tonnes during 2021-22 compared to 500.58 lakh tonnes during the previous year. Coal production of captive mines has gone up to 890.57 lakh tonnes and during 2020-21, the same was only 690.18 lakh tonnes.
Total coal dispatch during 2021-22 touched the figure of 8,180.04 lakh tonnes against the figure of 6,900.71 lakh tonnes the previous year, an increase of 18.43 percent. During the period, CIL dispatched 6,610.85 lakh tonnes of coal against 2020-21 figure of 5,730.80 lakh tonnes.
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