Coal India likely to miss production target

KOLKATA (miningweekly.com) – State-run miner Coal India Limited (CIL) will miss its production target of 660-million tons for 2019/20, expecting to notch up production of 640-million tons by end of the current financial year on March 31, 2020.

Production, however, will still be 5% higher than the 607-million tons achieved in 2018/19.

“We are trying our best to close at 660-million tons, but given the circumstances we don’t think we will be able to cross 640-million tons,” CIL chairperson A K Jha said in a statement.

Production losses during the five months of monsoon season last year were the primary reason for falling short of the target, he added.

CIL is stepping up its pace of production during rest of the financial year, having notched up double-digit production growth in January at 10.7%, compared with the corresponding month of previous year, averaging production of two-million tons a day.

According to a company official, the surge in production during January was the result of the revival in production by subsidiaries like Mahanadi Coalfields and South Eastern Coalfields, which reported production growth of 21.5% and 14.4%, respectively, during January, compared with the corresponding month of the previous year.

These two subsidiaries together contributed around 50% of CIL total production.