Coal India’s underground coal output declines by 12 percent

28 November 2016

Coal India Limited’s underground coal output declined by 12 per cent to 17.91 million tons (mt) during in first 7 and half months since April 1 to November 15, 2016, compared to 20.36 mt achieved during the same period last year, India Coal Market Watch (ICMW) reported.

Underground production so far this year (2016-17) has fallen short of the target of 22.47 mt set for the period under consideration, an ICMW data revealed. The report said that all mining subsidiaries, except Bharat Coking Coal Ltd (BCCL) and Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL), which does not have any underground mine, reported a negative growth in underground coal production so far this year.

BCCL has reported 3% growth in underground coal production as it produced 4.5 mt of coal during the first 7.5 months of 2016-17 as compared to 4.4 mt produced during the corresponding period of 2015-16. In contrast, opencast coal production by CIL increased by 1.2% to 279.89 mt till November 15, compared to 276.52 mt achieved during the same period last year.

All the major subsidiaries, except for Central Coalfields Ltd (CCL) and Western Coalfields (WCL), registered a growth in opencast production. CCL and WCL, however, have suffered a drop in both opencast and underground coal production during the period under review.

However, the world largest single coal company has achieved 36 per cent growth in coking coal production during the same period (April 1 to November 15, 2016,) on a year-on-year basis. Coking coal production stood at 5.29 million tons (mt) till November 15, 2016, compared to 3.89 mt achieved during the same period last year, the data shows.

Of the four CIL subsidiaries producing coking coal, Bharat Coking Coal (BCCL) and Central Coalfields (CCL) achieved positive growth in coking coal output, while Western Coalfields (WCL) and South Eastern Coalfields (SECL) suffered a decline. CCL reported total coking coal production of 3.16 mt, while BCCL achieved 2.00 mt till November 15 this year.

During the first 15 days of November, CIL’s coking coal production stood at 0.42 mt, up from 0.37 mt produced during the same period of 2015.

Source – News Web India