Combined stocks of thermal coal at 101 power plants have risen to a new record of 34.2 MT
Coal India achieved a 9.8% growth in sales volumes in the first 10 months of this financial year as production improved amid concerns of an oversupply after demand from power companies grew less than expected. The company sold 437.6 million tonnes of coal during the April-January period as output increased 9.6% to 426.31 million tonnes, Coal India said in a statement.
Although higher production helped the company to boost sales, stockpiles of coal with the company declined marginally to 42.25 million tonnes. This, along with 34 million tonnes of stocks with power plants, has led to a situation of oversupply.
Coal India's output rose 13.4% to 52.86 million tonnes in January from a year earlier, while offtake climbed 9.8% to 48.32 million tonnes.
The company now finds it hard to sell its entire output because thermal power companies, its biggest customers, are unable to accept more coal as their stockpiles have ballooned enough to cover supplies for an average of 25 days. “Our stock yards are almost full and we are not in a position to take increased volumes of coal. Stocks have increased due to the dual effect of a less-than expected rise in demand growth and a phenomenal rise in coal production and supplies,“ said a senior official from NTPC, which is Coal India's biggest customer.
The NTPC official said stocks have touched on an average 25 days compared with barely enough for three-four days earlier. Two Coal India subsidiaries surpassed 100 million tonnes of production in December. Sales and production for both January and the first 10 months fell short of their respective targets. The coal ministry is worried that Coal India may be forced to curtail production and miss its targets if it is unable to sell all its output. Officials are considering options such as reducing coal prices, offering more coal through e-auctions and increasing sales to thermal power plants that are eligible for and can receive additional coal, although no decision has been taken.
Amid sluggish demand, Coal India is facing dilemma over production and finding it difficult to further stock the fuel, even as the PSU major is not keen to rationalise prices and rather prefers to look at other methods to boost sales to keep weak subsidiaries in profit.
CIL has reached a situation where the production cannot be optimised due to inability to stock coal further, which has already reached 40 MT due to sluggish demand. “The current pricing has helped Eastern Coalfields to pull itself out of the red. If prices are rationalised, it might be difficult to keep weak subsidiaries in profit,” a Coal India official said. “We are trying our best to use alternate economic strategies to push sales keeping pricing tool as the last resort,” he added. Eighty per cent of Coal India’s coal sales is to power plants and dumping further coal at their stock yards is getting difficult due to security reasons.
“Dumping more coal to power plants is getting difficult as their average stock has gone up to 25 days against 11 days last year. This is neither economical and increases risk of fire,” the official said. Combined stocks of thermal coal at 101 power plants in the country have risen to a new record of 34.2 MT. CIL expects its dues will rise in the coming months as payment schedules have to be relaxed to push coal. Lower demand from state generation companies and continuing easing of international coal price has multiplied the problem. The dilemma is that despite these facts, even under these circumstances the government wants coal production growth should continue at the same rate of over 9 per cent, officials said.
CIL has reported a 13.9 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,718 crore for the quarter to December on the back of higher sales. Net profit came in at Rs 3,262.5 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, Coal India (CIL) said in a filing to BSE.
Net sales during the reporting quarter stood at Rs 18,971.5 crore, an increase of 6.8 per cent yoy. However, total expenses increased to Rs 15,407.5 crore, compared with Rs 14,850.1 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2014-15.
On a stand-alone basis, net profit (after taxes, minority interest and share of profit of associates) of the state-owned firm declined to Rs 672.6 crore as against Rs 695.8 crore in the year-ago period. Total income from operations declined sharply to Rs 36.2 crore, from Rs 74.6 crore a year earlier.
The company further said a joint venture company — Rashtriya Coal Gas Fertilizers Ltd — was incorporated in November last year through an agreement among CIL, the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd, GAIL (India) Ltd and the Fertilizer Corporation of India. “The JV company has an authorised share capital of Rs 50 crore, of which CIL shall hold 26 per cent,” it said, adding that there had been no investment in the JV up to December 31.
Its output in April-December of the current fiscal went up to 373.5 million tonnes (mt), from 342.4 mt a year ago. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production. The stock of the company closed at Rs 305.05 on BSE, down 2.87 per cent from the previous close.
On Coal India Ltd’s performance, the Coal Ministry, in a statement, said the PSU’s coal supplies rose 10.7 per cent in the December quarter. CIL as a whole supplied 137.90 million tonnes (mt) of coal in October-December.
“Interestingly, CIL continued its high-orbit growth in coal supplies for the nine months of April-December 2015, registering a 9.8 per cent growth year-on-year,” it said. “The company in recent times has stepped up coordination with the Railways in a bid to get more rakes, and this appears to have paid off in terms of increased supplies.” Coal India Ltd has been able to maintain the supply growth trajectory despite slowdown in demand for the fuel from coal-fired power utilities, which account for around 77 per cent of its overall coal supplies.
Meanwhile, Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) registered a growth of 12 per cent in production during this fiscal, the highest among all coal companies in the country. An arm of Coal India, CCL is the only coal company in the country to have continued with double digit growth in the dry fuel production in successive years, CMD Gopal Singh said adding that the growth rate of the previous fiscal was 11.3 per cent.
The company has produced 48.998 million tonne of the dry fuel till date as against a target of 60.6 MT for this fiscal, according to a company release. CCL has also established a new record in the dispatch of 50.883 MT output while its stock has come down to 7.67 MT from the April 1, 2010 stock of 16.41 MT.
“These achievements have become possible due to the cooperation and contribution of all stake holders,” Singh said. He committed to the CCL s significant contribution to the CIL s plan of achieving one billion tonne production and dispatch by 2019-20.
The Chairman-cum-Director of CCL also announced that all the 19 students of CCL’s Bhurkunda-based Industrial Training Institute were absorbed by Cummins Company. Six Greenfield projects having 40 MT capacity would be expanded to 100 MT, the press release also said.
CCL, which has a workforce of 44,274 as of January 1, 2016, has disposed of 2044 of the 2447 complaints received by the company s ‘Samadhan Kendra’ (grievance cell), it said. According to anMoU between CCL and Jharkhand government, 15 sports academies and Jharkhand Sports University would be set up phase-wise.
As many as 1,400 children would be selected for training in sports, and hostel and schooling would be provided to them.
Coal India achieved a 9.8% growth in sales volumes in the first 10 months of this financial year as production improved amid concerns of an oversupply after demand from power companies grew less than expected. The company sold 437.6 million tonnes of coal during the April-January period as output increased 9.6% to 426.31 million tonnes, Coal India said in a statement.
Although higher production helped the company to boost sales, stockpiles of coal with the company declined marginally to 42.25 million tonnes. This, along with 34 million tonnes of stocks with power plants, has led to a situation of oversupply.
Coal India's output rose 13.4% to 52.86 million tonnes in January from a year earlier, while offtake climbed 9.8% to 48.32 million tonnes.
The company now finds it hard to sell its entire output because thermal power companies, its biggest customers, are unable to accept more coal as their stockpiles have ballooned enough to cover supplies for an average of 25 days. “Our stock yards are almost full and we are not in a position to take increased volumes of coal. Stocks have increased due to the dual effect of a less-than expected rise in demand growth and a phenomenal rise in coal production and supplies,“ said a senior official from NTPC, which is Coal India's biggest customer.
The NTPC official said stocks have touched on an average 25 days compared with barely enough for three-four days earlier. Two Coal India subsidiaries surpassed 100 million tonnes of production in December. Sales and production for both January and the first 10 months fell short of their respective targets. The coal ministry is worried that Coal India may be forced to curtail production and miss its targets if it is unable to sell all its output. Officials are considering options such as reducing coal prices, offering more coal through e-auctions and increasing sales to thermal power plants that are eligible for and can receive additional coal, although no decision has been taken.
Amid sluggish demand, Coal India is facing dilemma over production and finding it difficult to further stock the fuel, even as the PSU major is not keen to rationalise prices and rather prefers to look at other methods to boost sales to keep weak subsidiaries in profit.
CIL has reached a situation where the production cannot be optimised due to inability to stock coal further, which has already reached 40 MT due to sluggish demand. “The current pricing has helped Eastern Coalfields to pull itself out of the red. If prices are rationalised, it might be difficult to keep weak subsidiaries in profit,” a Coal India official said. “We are trying our best to use alternate economic strategies to push sales keeping pricing tool as the last resort,” he added. Eighty per cent of Coal India’s coal sales is to power plants and dumping further coal at their stock yards is getting difficult due to security reasons.
“Dumping more coal to power plants is getting difficult as their average stock has gone up to 25 days against 11 days last year. This is neither economical and increases risk of fire,” the official said. Combined stocks of thermal coal at 101 power plants in the country have risen to a new record of 34.2 MT. CIL expects its dues will rise in the coming months as payment schedules have to be relaxed to push coal. Lower demand from state generation companies and continuing easing of international coal price has multiplied the problem. The dilemma is that despite these facts, even under these circumstances the government wants coal production growth should continue at the same rate of over 9 per cent, officials said.
CIL has reported a 13.9 per cent increase in consolidated net profit at Rs 3,718 crore for the quarter to December on the back of higher sales. Net profit came in at Rs 3,262.5 crore in the same quarter of the previous fiscal, Coal India (CIL) said in a filing to BSE.
Net sales during the reporting quarter stood at Rs 18,971.5 crore, an increase of 6.8 per cent yoy. However, total expenses increased to Rs 15,407.5 crore, compared with Rs 14,850.1 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2014-15.
On a stand-alone basis, net profit (after taxes, minority interest and share of profit of associates) of the state-owned firm declined to Rs 672.6 crore as against Rs 695.8 crore in the year-ago period. Total income from operations declined sharply to Rs 36.2 crore, from Rs 74.6 crore a year earlier.
The company further said a joint venture company — Rashtriya Coal Gas Fertilizers Ltd — was incorporated in November last year through an agreement among CIL, the Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd, GAIL (India) Ltd and the Fertilizer Corporation of India. “The JV company has an authorised share capital of Rs 50 crore, of which CIL shall hold 26 per cent,” it said, adding that there had been no investment in the JV up to December 31.
Its output in April-December of the current fiscal went up to 373.5 million tonnes (mt), from 342.4 mt a year ago. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of the domestic coal production. The stock of the company closed at Rs 305.05 on BSE, down 2.87 per cent from the previous close.
On Coal India Ltd’s performance, the Coal Ministry, in a statement, said the PSU’s coal supplies rose 10.7 per cent in the December quarter. CIL as a whole supplied 137.90 million tonnes (mt) of coal in October-December.
“Interestingly, CIL continued its high-orbit growth in coal supplies for the nine months of April-December 2015, registering a 9.8 per cent growth year-on-year,” it said. “The company in recent times has stepped up coordination with the Railways in a bid to get more rakes, and this appears to have paid off in terms of increased supplies.” Coal India Ltd has been able to maintain the supply growth trajectory despite slowdown in demand for the fuel from coal-fired power utilities, which account for around 77 per cent of its overall coal supplies.
Meanwhile, Central Coalfields Limited (CCL) registered a growth of 12 per cent in production during this fiscal, the highest among all coal companies in the country. An arm of Coal India, CCL is the only coal company in the country to have continued with double digit growth in the dry fuel production in successive years, CMD Gopal Singh said adding that the growth rate of the previous fiscal was 11.3 per cent.
The company has produced 48.998 million tonne of the dry fuel till date as against a target of 60.6 MT for this fiscal, according to a company release. CCL has also established a new record in the dispatch of 50.883 MT output while its stock has come down to 7.67 MT from the April 1, 2010 stock of 16.41 MT.
“These achievements have become possible due to the cooperation and contribution of all stake holders,” Singh said. He committed to the CCL s significant contribution to the CIL s plan of achieving one billion tonne production and dispatch by 2019-20.
The Chairman-cum-Director of CCL also announced that all the 19 students of CCL’s Bhurkunda-based Industrial Training Institute were absorbed by Cummins Company. Six Greenfield projects having 40 MT capacity would be expanded to 100 MT, the press release also said.
CCL, which has a workforce of 44,274 as of January 1, 2016, has disposed of 2044 of the 2447 complaints received by the company s ‘Samadhan Kendra’ (grievance cell), it said. According to anMoU between CCL and Jharkhand government, 15 sports academies and Jharkhand Sports University would be set up phase-wise.
As many as 1,400 children would be selected for training in sports, and hostel and schooling would be provided to them.
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