State-owned Coal India Ltd on Tuesday said its coal offtake rose by 38 per cent to 55 million tonnes (MT) in May on the back of stimulation of fuel demand from the power segment. "Spurred by the revival of coal demand from power sector, Coal India Ltd (CIL) scripted the highest ever coal off-take of 55 million tonnes for the month of May (in any year) so far," the PSU stated in a statement.
As coal supplies surged ahead to 55 MT in May, CIL recorded a whopping 15 MT upsurge in volume terms against comparable month last year, logging close to 38 per cent growth, the statement said.
Even compared to pre-COVID May 2019, the growth was 5.8 per cent when the firm's off-take was 52 MT, it said.
With the appetite for coal signalling healthy recovery, CIL's supply to power segment at nearly 44 MT in May this year was up by 41 per cent. The firm supplied around 13 MT more to power
plants compared to May last year.
Stimulated by improved activity and higher coal consumption, stock at thermal power stations fell by 5 MT in April from that of 28.9 MT at the closure of the last financial. Though, increased supplies by CIL in May resulted in the coal stock restored to 29 MT at the coal fired plants.
In the ensuing months, the firm goals to further surge its supplies.
"Understandably due to COVID-forced lockdown, coal supplies suffered during last year but even then, a robust overall 30 MT off-take upsurge during first two months of the current fiscal is an encouraging sign compared to April-May'20. During this period coal off-take to power sector was 23.6 MT more," the company stated.
CIL's whole coal off-take for April-May was 109.2 MT, clocking a growth of 38 per cent related to 79 MT in the same period year ago. The supply to power segment registered a 38 per cent growth. The PSU supplied 86.3 MT of coal to power segment during the first two months of the ongoing financial compared to 62.7 MT same period a year ago.
Coal India has liquidated 25 MT of coal out of its inventory throughout April-May period. The firm which began FY'22 with close to 100 MT stock at its pitheads condensed it to 74.3 MT at the end of May this year.
CIL produced 42.1 MT in May and 84 MT in April-May period of the current financial. The firm is confident of ramping up the production even at short notice when the demand peaks to even higher levels especially with the coal seams exposed. CIL has noted the second highest over burden removal growth of 17 per cent, in more than a decade, previous year. Coal India accounts for over 80 per cent of national coal output.
