Coal India may register de-growth in FY'20

Kolkata, Mar 29 () Coal India Ltd may witness ade-growth in production in the current year as its output isexpected to be lower than 607 million tonne achieved in theprevious fiscal, sources said.

The production is likely to be at 602-603 milliontonne in 2019-20, they said.

The miner is also likely to witness a decline in off-take in the current fiscal as compared to its 608 milliontonne supply in the previous year, they said.

"Till March 28, the coal output was 591 million tonneand the company is likely to produce another 12 million tonnein the next three days, given the average output trend atpresent," sources told .

Of late, the miner had ramped up daily production toreach closer to its target, they said.

Coal India had set an ambitious target of 660 milliontonne of production and off-take for FY'20.

"The off-take was at 576.80 million tonne till March28, registering a decline of 4 per cent over last year," thesources said.

The coal behemoth had supplied 608 million tonne ofdry fuel to its consumers during 2018-19.

The coal off-take was less than what was projected inthe current year due to a slowdown in the economy and as aresult of which, the pit-head stock increased, they said,adding that the coal production was also hit by prolongedmonsoon this year.

Of its seven coal producing subsidiaries, NorthernCoalfields and Western Coalfields, however, had alreadysurpassed their respective annual production target.

NCL aimed at 106.3 million tonne in the currentfiscal, and as on March 28, its production was 106.50 milliontonne, while WCL output stood at 56.20 million tonne asagainst a target of 56 million tonne. BSMBDC BDC