by admin | May 25, 2021 | Commodities, Commodities News, Corporate, Corporate Buzz, Finance, Markets, News
Kolkata : Coal India, which is looking to rationalise its underground mines in view of safety and financial viability, could close about 53 such mines this year, its Chairman Anil Kumar Jha said on Wednesday.
He said manpower would “not be retrenched” if any mine is closed and workers would be re-trained and re-skilled for getting employed in other mines.
“About 43 underground mines were closed last year on grounds of safety and viability. We had inherited many underground mines at the time of nationalisation. That time there were more than 700 mines. Now, with each passing day, we are trying to rationalise mines which are small and not financially viable. For some of the mines, we are trying to amalgamate and turn some of them into opencast,” he said.
“We have given a project to Indian School of Mines to give us a solution about how the underground mines can be managed by closing or by amalgamating or converting into opencast. This exercise is going on,” said Jha, adding that it will take a “concrete shape” in the next six months.
Jha also said, “Not a single manpower would be retrenched and they will be re-skilled and retrained. They will be employed in some other mines.”
The miner has 369 mines at the beginning of the current fiscal, of which 174 are underground, 177 opencast and 18 mixed mines.
Coal production from underground mines in 2017-18 was 30.54 million tonnes compared to 31.48 million tonnes during 2016-17. Production from opencast mines during 2017-18 was 94.62 per cent of total raw coal production.
However, the miner is also taking up new coal mining projects.
A total of 11 coal blocks have been allotted to Eastern Coalfields, Bharat Coking Coal and Western Coalfields and these new blocks will help these subsidiaries produce more than 100 million tonnes of coal per annum in the near future, he said.
He said four coal mining projects with an ultimate capacity of 24.6 million tonnes per annum and a total capital investment of Rs 4,155.46 crore were approved.
Jha said there are 26 operational mines which are contributing more than 55-60 per cent of total production.
Coal India Ltd (CIL) has undertaken rail infrastructure projects for planned growth in production and sales and as many as 13 projects for coal evacuation have been identified, he said.
He said two coking coal washeries were commissioned and plans are on the anvil to set up a non-coking coal washery in Odisha’s Ib-Valley for which a letter of intention was issued.
“Coal India is tasked with meeting challenging targets in the years ahead. Going forward in order to meet the production targets, it needs to step up its growth rate.
“In order to achieve the planned growth in production and extraction in future, the company has undertaken major rail infrastructure projects,” Jha said.
Out of the identified projects, three would be funded by coal companies, four by special purpose vehicles and six by railways, the miner said.
The miner is pursuing an aspirational production target of 652 million tonnes in the current fiscal while it had produced 567.36 million tonnes in 2017-18.
At the 44th Annual General Meeting, Jha informed shareholders that annual grade declaration of the current fiscal was finalised by the Coal Controller Office.
“A total of 386 mines were reassessed and out of these, 61 mines were downgraded and 42 mines were upgraded,” he said in his speech.
In order to monitor coal quality, Jha said, a portal UTTAM (unlocking transparency by third party assessment of mined coal) was launched by the miner to capture the entire life cycle of sample.
According to him, coal reserve stood at 319 billion tonnes upto a depth of 1,200 metres as on April 1, as per the estimated geological resource of India.
CIL is planning to set up a coal-based methanol plant at Dankuni Coal Complex (DCC) of South Eastern Coalfields Limited.
“The methanol to be produced at DCC will likely find a definitive market in the eastern states of India, once the policy of the government for blending of methanol with petrol comes into practice,” he said.
The miner said the capital expenditure for 2018-19 has been set at Rs 9,500 crore.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Commodities, Commodities News, Commodity Market, Economy, Investing, Markets, News
Kolkata : Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Sunday said its production during April-June period of the current fiscal grew by 15.2 per cent over corresponding period last year and its off-take also increased by 11.7 per cent during the first quarter of this year over same period last year.
The miner, however, missed both production and off-take target for the first three months of this year by 9 per cent and 10 per cent respectively.
According to provisional data, CIL produced 44.88 million tonnes of coal in June, achieving 85 per cent of its target of 52.79 million tonnes for the month.
The miner produced 136.87 million tonnes of coal against a target of 150.77 million tonnes during the first quarter of the current fiscal registering a growth of 15.2 per cent.
It reported that its off-take during June was at 49.59 million tonnes, missing the target of 55.28 million tonnes for the month.
Its off-take during the first quarter of the current fiscal was at 153.43 million tonnes achieving a growth of 11.7 per cent.
It, however, achieved 90 per cent the off-take target during the April-June period of the current fiscal.
Coal India is looking at a coal despatch target of 630 million tonnes in 2018-19. Of this around 525 million tonnes would be the estimated coal supply to the power sector.
In 2017-18, Coal India registered a total despatch of 580 million tonnes, of which supply to the power sector was 454 million tonnes with an year- on- year growth of 7 per cent.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodities, Commodities News, Large Enterprise
Kolkata : The Centre is expected to get around Rs 8,044 crore on account of dividend from Coal India as the miner’s board approved payment of interim dividend for the financial year 2017-18 at a rate of Rs 16.50 per share.
The miner’s total payout on account of this would be to the tune Rs 10,242 crore.
“The Board of Directors of CIL (Coal India Ltd) in its meeting on Saturday, March 10, 2018 had approved payment of Interim Dividend for the financial year 2017-18 at the rate Rs 16.50 per share of the face value of Rs 10 as recommended by the Audit Committee of CIL in its meeting held on date,” the miner said in a regulatory filing.
The government holds 78.55 per cent of share in the company and the rest is public shareholding.
In addition to dividend amount, the Central government is also expected to get around Rs 2,085 crore on account of tax.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Corporate Governance, Large Enterprise
Kolkata : Coal India Ltd (CIL) on Sunday said coal supplies to power utilities increased by 9.2 per cent to 290.59 million tonnes (mt) during April to November period of the current fiscal compared to 266 mt during same period last year.
“On the back of higher rake loading, CIL’s coal supplies to power utilities of the country posted a healthy 9.2 per cent growth at 290.59 mt during April-November 2017 continuing the upward spiral. This translates to a robust 24.59 mt increase in absolute terms compared to 266 MTs during April-November 2016,” the miner said in a statement.
For November only, the growth in coal supplies to thermal power stations of the country was up by around 9 per cent at 40.92 mt as against 37.56 mt supplied during year-ago month.
The increased supplies saw the coal stocks at power stations going up by over two mt to around 10 mt at the end of November 2017 compared to closing stock of 7.9 mt in October 2017. The miner said it was gearing up to step up the supplies even further to pull the power stations out of the critical situation.
Average rake loading per day to the power sector recorded a growth of 6.8 per cent during the eight-month period of current fiscal.
“Coal India as a whole loaded 191.7 rakes per day to coal based generating units of the country during April-November 2017 compared to 179.5 rakes same period last year. The increase in absolute terms is 12.2 rakes per day. November 2017 witnessed invigorated loading by the miner with the average loading for the month raising to 217.3 rakes compared to 199.7 rakes, same month last year with a strong growth of 8.8 per cent,” CIL said in a statement.
Coal supplies to non-power sector have been gradually increasing with stabilisation of supplies to power houses, it said.
“Rake loading per day to the entire consumer base of CIL grew by 4.1 per cent for the eight-month period of the fiscal ending November 2017, averaging 218.3 rakes during the period against 209.8 rakes on a year-on-year comparison,” it said adding that the overall rake loading peaked to 261 rakes on November 29 with month’s average settling down at 241.1 rakes evincing a growth of 2.5 per cent compared to 235.2 rakes during November 2016.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Corporate, Large Enterprise
Kolkata : Coal India on Tuesday reported that its half-yearly production during the April-September period for the current fiscal grew marginally by 0.8 per cent to 231.87 million tonnes (mt) as compared to about 230.06 mt produced in the year-ago period.
According to the miner’s provisional data, it produced 38.77 mt in September only, exceeding the production target of 38.32 mt for the month.
However, it missed the half-yearly production target of 243.30 mt by five per cent.
The miner reported that its off-take grew by 8 per cent in the April-September period to 269.02 mt as against the off-take of about 249.11 mt in the corresponding period last year.
However, the company achieved 96 per cent of its off-take target of 279.66 mt for the half yearly period of the current fiscal.
In September only, its off-take was at 43.58 mt, exceeding the target of 42.34 mt.
The miner’s two subsidiaries South Eastern Coalfields Limited (SECL) and Mahanadi Coalfields (MCL) contributed the majority of its September production by generating 10.13 mt and 9.74 mt of coal, respectively.
The off-take from SECL during the last month was at 10.86 mt while MCL achieved 10.28 mt of sales.
The miner envisaged production of 908.10 million tonnes in 2019-20 with a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 12.98 per cent, with respect to 2014-15.
The miner’s interim Chairman Gopal Singh, during its Annual General Meeting last month, had emphasised on quick and swift exploitation of the domestic fossil fuel reserves in order to meet future demand and reduce imports.
According to him, the large planned new coal-based thermal capacity is likely to put pressure on coal resources.
Coal-based power generation capacity of 125 gigawatt in 2012 is likely to go up to more than 330-441 GW by 2040 (192 GW in FY 2017).
He said the demand for these plants is likely to be first met by domestic coal, which will require quick exploitation of internal reserves.
Singh also said that coal production increased in the last three years substantially, resulting in reduction in imports and foreign exchange savings of Rs 25,900 crore.
“Import dependence in oil and gas is understandable given the poor reserves we have but import dependence on coal, particularly non-coking coal, is something that can be addressed by swift exploitation of domestic coal reserves,” he added.
According to him, imports contributed 25 per cent of coal supply in 2015-16 and 23 per cent in 2016-17.
—IANS
