Coal India's production down marginally in FY20

Kolkata, Apr 1 () Coal India Ltd on Wednesday saidit has produced 602.14 million tonne of dry fuel during 2019-20 fiscal, down by 0.8 per cent from the previous year'soutput.

The miner had produced 606.89 million tonne of coal in2018-19.

The company achieved 91 per cent of its 660 milliontonne production target for FY20, an official said.

"Production was hit due to prolonged monsoon duringthe first half of the fiscal but we recovered in the secondhalf," the company official said.

The miner's production in March grew by 6.5 per centto 84.36 million tonne as compared to 79.19 million tonneproduced in the year-ago month, according to a regulatoryfiling.

"The coal behemoth witnessed a negative growth for thefirst time in the recent years, though its production hadgrown year-on -year in the last decade with the increasingdemand," an analyst said.

According to provisional data, coal off-take at 581.73million tonne during FY20 was down by 4.3 per cent as against608.14 million tonne achieved in the previous year.

The Kolkata-headquartered company said its coal supplyfell by 10.3 per cent to 53.45 million tonne in March.

The company had supplied 59.60 million tonne of coalto its customers in the year-ago month.

Coal off-take was also adversely impacted due to aslowdown in the economy, the analyst said.

The miner's pit-head stock rose to 74.56 milliontonne, offering a buffer for the upcoming summer months whilepower companies have about 45 million tonne of coal at theirstockyards, the official said. BSMBDC BDC