Hit by Covid-19 pandemic, Coal India, India's largest coal mining company has reported 55.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) decline in consolidated profit at Rs 2,077.5 crore in the April-June quarter. The company’s profit in same period last year stood at Rs 4,630 crore. Consolidated revenue from operations plunged 25.9 percent YoY to Rs 18,487 crore in the quarter ended June 2020, as offtake reduced by 21.5 percent to 120.42 million tonnes YoY.
Coal India produced 121.04 million tonnes of coal during the first quarter, down 11.6 percent compared to 136.94 million tonnes produced in the same period last year. "The continuing COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the business of the group adversely. The offtake was down mainly due to less demand from power sector as well as closure of industries in the non-regulated sector due to COVID-19,
even though the company had an opening stock of 74.63 million tonnes as on April 1, 2020," Coal India said in its BSE filing.
On the operating front, earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) fell 53.8 percent YoY to Rs 3,051.7 crore and margin declined 1,000 bps YoY to 16.5 percent in the quarter. Numbers, barring revenue, were ahead of analysts' estimates. Profit was estimated at Rs 1,950 crore on revenue at Rs 19,060 crore, and EBITDA was expected at Rs 2,745 crore with margin at 14.4 percent for the quarter, as per the average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18. Other income fell sharply to Rs 785.06 crore in Q1FY21, compared to Rs 1,150.2 crore in the corresponding period last fiscal.
The company is targeting one billion tonne of production by 2023-24 and plans to pump in over Rs 1.22 lakh crore into projects related to coal evacuation, exploration and clean coal technologies by 2023-24, to achieve 1 billion tonne of fuel output target, said Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi. Out of the proposed spend of over 1.22 lakh crore, CIL has planned to invest Rs 32,696 crore on coal evacuation, Rs 25,117 crore on mine infrastructure and Rs 29,461 crore on project development by 2023-24, the minister added.
He said the state-owned company will also invest Rs 32,199 on diversification and clean coal technologies, Rs 1,495 crore on social infrastructure and Rs 1,893 crore on exploration works. The investment of Rs 1.22 lakh crore will be utilised to fund a total of 500 projects, as per Joshi. (Source: Money Control)
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