Coal India expects its supplies to catch up with last year by November. Over the seven months of April and October 2020, supplies at 305.7 million tonnes (mt) have been less than the corresponding seven months a year ago by 3.4 per cent. Supplies between April and October 2019 stood at 316.3mt.

Buoyed by an uptick in demand from power plants, Coal India officials on Sunday said they have arrested the decline in supplies by as much by half in October. The decline in supplies has fallen from 7.6 per cent between April and September to 3.4 per cent between April and October.

“Though the progressive growth in output was nominal, we could wipe off the negative trend and now look forward to consolidating the positive pattern for the rest of the fiscal,” a senior official of the company said.

In October, coal offtake was 50.5mt, a growth of 25 per cent over October 2019. Production in October rose 18.7 per cent to 46.8mt.

Production during the first seven months of the fiscal was 282.9mt, which is 2.5mt more than the production in the comparative year ago period.

Mahanadi Coalfields played a crucial role in the improved performance of Coal India with production and offtake of the subsidiary growing 44.8 per cent and 56.4 per cent, respectively, in October.

The official also pointed out that a revival in coal demand has helped to stop the slide in infrastructure production in September, which fell 0.8 per cent for the month, thanks mainly to the 21.2 per cent growth in coal output.

This was the highest among the eight industries that make up the infrastructure sector that also include crude oil, natural gas, refinery products, fertilisers, steel, cement and electricity. Coal has a 10.33 per cent weightage in the eight core sector index.

The miner supplied 36.4mt of coal to the power sector in September 2020 against 29.2mt in the same month a year ago. Growth in electricity generation was 3.7 per cent during September in the core sector index.