Coal India cuts production target from 710 MT to 660 MT for FY21 as COVID hits offtake

Coal India cuts production target from 710 MT to 660 MT for FY21 as COVID hits offtake

Coal India has cut its coal production target down from 710 Million Tonnes (MT) to 660 MT for FY2020-21 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic
  • The revision has been done as the demand for coal has witnessed a disruption because of the COVID-19 crisis

  • Coal offtake at Coal India stood at 53.38 MT in March before dropping to 39.06 MT in April in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis

New Delhi: State-run Coal India Limited (CIL) has cut its coal production target down from 710 Million Tonnes (MT) to 660 MT for FY2020-21 in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, a source told PSU Watch on Thursday. The revision has been done as the demand for coal has witnessed a disruption because of the COVID-19 crisis. The target of 710 MT of coal production and coal offtake was set by Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi earlier in April this year. 

"The demand of coal will pick up again after the Coronavirus lockdown, so I have directed CIL to keep the production and offtake targets at 710 MT for the financial year 2020-21 in line with its goal to achieve 1 billion tonne coal production by the year 2023-24," Joshi had said at the time.

Coal offtake has improved only marginally since March, shows data

According to data sourced from the Ministry of Coal, coal offtake at Coal India stood at 53.38 MT in March before dropping to 39.06 MT in April in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis. The figure then improved to 39.95 MT in May and then to 41.61 MT in June. However, it was still lower when compared to June 2019 when the offtake was at 48.98 MT.

Talking specifically about the power sector, coal dispatch to power sector by CIL stood at 42.30 MT in March before plunging to 31.95 MT in April. The decline continued in May as the figure settled at 30.15 MT in the month and barely improved in June at 30.94 MT.

The backdrop

Coal production in the June quarter of the current financial year stood at 136.94 MT as compared with 136.85 MT in the year-ago period. Coal offtake at Coal India in Q1 was at 153.49 MT as against 153.47 MT a year ago. Coal India accounts for around 80 percent of India's total domestic coal output.

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