CIL logs jump 17 percent in opencast composite production in July, expecting performance to grow further on Monday’s state-owned Coal India Ltd (CIL) announced a 17 percent increase in opencast composite production over the same month a year ago in July. Furthermore, in view of the positive growth pattern in the OverBurden Removal (OBR), the company expects output to rise after monsoon.
OBR means scraping the top soil in order to uncover the coal seams and make them fit for mining. The composite production for July was 110.40 million cubic meters (M CuM), compared to 94.4 M CuM in July 2019, CIL said in a statement. This sums total OBR and the amount of coal produced by opencast mines.
“For CIL which relies on opencast mines for 95 per cent of its entire annual coal output, OBR is a crucial performance indicator which exposes the coal seam for future production at short notice,” said a senior executive of the company.
In July 2020 alone, CIL’s OBR grew 23.1 per cent over the same month a year earlier, and positive OBR growth in July 2020 jumped 12.4 per cent. In July this year Coal India excavated 88.46 M CuM of OBR as opposed to 71.85 M CuM in July 2019, the PSU said in a statement.
“We expect our production to go up post monsoon especially with the positive growth trend in the overburden removal,” a senior executive of the company said.
In terms of volume, CIL subsidiary Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL) accounted for more than a third of the entire OBR of Coal India, reporting a 36.7 per cent rise in July 2020. In the month NCL excavated 31.73 M CuM OBR.
In July of last year, CIL subsidiary Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) doubled its OBR excavation to 12.48 M CuM in the current year, clocking a 103 percent rise compared to 6.14 M CuM in July.
CIL subsidiaries Bharat Coking Coal Ltd and South Eastern Coalfields Ltd have reported growth of more than 25% and 21% respectively in overburden removal. In July, CIL dispatched 43.39 million tons (MT) of coal, the highest in the ongoing fiscal cycle so far for a month.
The coal sales increased by 1.8 MT in July compared to June, reporting growth of 4.3 per cent with industrial activity showing signs of revival. In the first week of July, following COVID-19 triggered slowdown and a three-day strike, CIL was able to ramp up their supplies for the month, it said.
Supplies to the non-power sector at 11.09 MT in July grew by close to 21 per cent compared to 9.18 MT in July last fiscal, the statement said.
“Our production and offtake were weighed down by the COVID-19 led siege since the beginning of FY21. But for the first time in this fiscal, the downward growth in a month fell below double digits in both the facets, in July 2020,” a senior executive of the company said.
Last month CIL emitted 37.36 MT of coal, down 3 per cent from July 2019. Yet, critically, the growth slump was sharply restricted compared to June 20, when it was 12.8 per cent.
Coal production picked up in July’s last week, reporting a 15.7 percent increase over the same period a year ago. The downward trend in coal sales also gradually decreased from 26% in April 2020 to 7% in July.
